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TRAVELLERS  AND  OUTLAWS 


in  American 


BY 

THOMAS  WENTWORTH   HIGGINSON 


WITH  AN  APPENDIX  OF  AUTHORITIES 


BOSTON  1889 
LEE    AND    SHEPARD    PUBLISHERS 

10  MILK  STREET  NEXT  "THE  OLD  SOUTH  MEETING-HOUSE  ' 

NEW  YORK  CHARLES  T.  DILLINGHAM 

718  AND  720  BROADWAY 


EEPLACINQ 


COPYRIGHT,  1888, 
BY  THOMAS  WENTWORTH  HIGGINSON. 


All  rights  reserved. 


NOTE 

THE  author  would  express  his  thanks  to 
the  proprietors  and  editors  of  the  Atlantic 
Monthly,  Harper's  Magazine,  and  the  Century, 
for  their  permission  to  reprint  such  portions 
of  this  volume  as  were  originally  published 

in  those  periodicals. 

• 

CAMBRIDGE,  MASS.  3 


CONTENTS. 


PAGE 

THE  OLD  SALEM  SEA-CAPTAINS 

A  REVOLUTIONARY  CONGRESSMAN  ON  HORSEBACK.    57 

A  NEW-ENGLAND  VAGABOND 88 

THE  MAROONS  OF  JAMAICA 116 

THE  MAROONS  OF  SURINAM 15° 

-I  Qt 

GABRIEL'S  DEFEAT 

215 
DENMARK  VESEY •     •    •    • 

*NAT  TURNER'S  INSURRECTION 276 

'.  327 
APPENDIX 

5 


TEAYELLEES  A^D   OUTLAWS 


OLD    SALEM    SEA-CAPTAINS 

fT^HOSE  who  may  have  had  occasion,  thirty 
or  forty  years  ago,  to  visit  the  custom 
houses  of  the  New-England  coast,  may  remem 
ber  certain  typical  figures  now  vanished,  —  a 
race  of  quiet,  elderly  men,  who  came  and  went 
about  their  monotonous  duties,  bearing  no  trace 
of  stormy  and  adventurous  careers,  except  a  cer 
tain  slight  deference  from  those  around  them, 
and  the  title  of  "Captain."  The  voice  that 
quavered  as  it  slowly  read  aloud  a  column  of 
figures  had  once  shouted  forth  the  order  to  cut 
away  the  masts  in  a  hurricane,  or  to  open  fire 
upon  a  Spanish  fort ;  hands  that  trembled  as 
they  unfolded  a  manifest  had  once  struck  down 
a  Malay  pirate  with  a  cutlass,  or  steered  a  sink 
ing  vessel  into  an  unknown  harbor  in  the  Indian 

11 


12  TRAVELLERS   AND   OUTLAWS 

Ocean.  These  men  were  the  humbler  Drakes, 
the  Cavendishes,  of  their  day ;  they  had  carried 
the  American  flag  where  it  was  an  unknown 
ensign ;  they  had  voyaged  from  distant  island 
on  to  island  without  chart  or  light-house ;  they 
had  made  and  lost  great  fortunes,  —  made  them 
commonly  for  others,  lost  them  for  themselves. 
At  twenty  they  had  been  ship-masters ;  at  fifty 
they  were  stranded  hulks.  They  were  like  those 
other  seaside  products,  those  floating  and  home 
less  jelly-fishes,  which  at  first  are  borne  wherever 
ocean  wills,  and  then  change  into  a  fixed,  cling 
ing  creature  that  rests  in  some,  secluded  custom 
house  in  a  cleft  of  rock,  thenceforth  to  move  no 
more. 

These  were  the  least  fortunate  but  not  least 
heroic  type  of  Salem  sea-captains,  the  men  who 
could  say  to  their  children,  as  Virgil's  ^Eneas 
says  to  lulus,  — 

"  Disce,  puer,  virtutern  ex  me,  verumque  laborem, 
Fortunam  ex  aliis." 

There  were  others  who  added  good  fortune 
to  courage  and  industry;  men  like  Nathaniel 


OLD   SALEM   SEA-CAPTAINS  13 

Silsbee,  who  was  for  years  the  associate  of 
Daniel  Webster  in  the  Senate  of  the  United 
States;  or  like  the  Crowninshields  and  Derbys 
and  Grays,  who  bequeathed  large  estates  to 
their  descendants.  These  were  the  conspicu 
ous  instances  of  success :  those  of  financial 
failure  were  more  frequent.  The  old  sea- 
captains  were  more  commonly  men  who,  like 
Dogberry,  had  had  losses,  or  who,  like  great 
inventors,  enriched  all  but  themselves.  Capt. 
Richard  Cleveland  left  home  at  twenty-three 
with  two  thousand  dollars  invested,  and,  after 
twice  circumnavigating  the  globe,  returned  at 
thirty  with  what  was  then  regarded  as  a  com 
fortable  fortune,  —  seventy  thousand  dollars. 
This  he  naturally  invested  in  the  voyages  of 
others ;  they  naturally  lost  it ;  and  after  sacri 
ficing,  as  he  estimates,  two  hundred  thousand 
dollars  in  all,  he  brought  up  in  a  custom-house 
at  last. 

The  centre  and  headquarters  of  these  retired 
navigators,  successful  or  unsuccessful,  was 
Salem,  Mass.  The  very  seal  of  that  now  quiet 
city  drew  its  proud  motto,  "  Divitis  Indice  usque 


14  TRAVELLERS   AND   OUTLAWS 

ad  ultimum  sinum"  from  their  unwearied  labors. 
There  is  nothing  more  brilliant  in  American 
history  than  the  brief  career  of  maritime  adven 
ture  which  made  the  name  of  Salem  synony 
mous  with  that  of  America  in  many  a  distant 
port.  The  period  bridged  the  interval  between 
two  wars:  the  American  Revolution  laid  its 
foundation ;  the  later  war  with  England  saw 
its  last  trophies.  Its  evolution  was  very  simple. 
When  the  chief  ports  of  the  Colonies  were 
closed,  and  their  commerce  ruined,  the  group  of 
ports  around  Salem  became  the  headquarters 
of  privateers ;  and,  when  the  Revolutionary 
war  was  over,  those  vessels,  being  too  large  for 
the  coasting-trade,  sought  a  new  outlet,  and 
could  not  find  it  short  of  the  Pacific  and  the 
south-eastern  archipelago.  By  their  daring 
and  adventure,  those  who  owned  and  sailed 
these  vessels  became  for  a  time  the  heroes  of 
the  sea ;  they  competed  single-handed  with  the 
great  chartered  companies  of  European  nations ; 
they  ventured  freely  between  the  giant  forces 
of-  England  and  France,  both  ready  to  swallow 
them  up.  Even  when  finally  crushed  between 


OLD   SALEM   SEA-CAPTAINS  15 

French  "  decrees "  and  English  "  orders  in 
council,"  they  retained  vitality  enough  to  lead 
up  to  the  naval  glories  of  the  war  of  1812. 

Yet  long  before  the  Revolution  a  plan  had 
been  vaguely  sketched  out  by  which  Salem 
was  to  obtain  something  of  that  share  in  the 
India  trade  which  later  events  brought  to  her. 
In  an  old  letter-book  containing  part  of  the 
correspondence  that  passed  in  1669  between 
Lieut.-Col.  John  Higginson  of  Salem,  and  his 
brother  Nathaniel,  graduate  of  Harvard  College, 
and  governor  of  the  English  colony  of  Madras, 
the  home-keeping  brother  suggests  that  the 
ex-governor  should  make  the  Massachusetts 
colony  the  seat  of  an  Oriental  commerce  by 
way  of  London,  and  thus  enumerates  the 
resources  of  such  a  traffic :  — 

"  All  sorts  of  calicoes,  aligers,  remwalls,  muslin,  silks 
for  clothing  and  linings  ;  all  sorts  of  drugs  proper  for  the 
apothecaries,  and  all  sorts  of  spice,  are  vendible  with  us, 
and  the  prices  of  them  alter  much  according  as  they  were 
plenty  or  scarce.  In  the  late  war  time  all  East  India 
goods  were  extremely  dear.  Muslins  of  the  best  sort, 
plain,  striped,  and  flowered,  were  sold  for  £10  per  piece, 


16  TRAVELLERS  AND  OUTLAWS 

and  some  more.  Pepper,  3s.  per  pound;  nuts  [nutmegs], 
10s.  per  pound;  cloves,  20s.;  mace,  30s.;  but  now  are 
abated  about  a  quarter  part  in  value.  Some  of  the  china 
ware,  toys,  and  lacquer  ware  will  sell  well,  but  no  -great 
quantity.  As  for  ambergris,  we  often  have  it  from  the* 
West  Indies,  and  it  is  sold  for  about  3  per  ounce.  For 
musk,  pearl,  and  diamond,  I  believe  some  of  them  may 
sell  well,  but  I  understand  not  their  value." 

Thus  early,  it  seems,  was  the  taste  for 
Chinese  and  Japanese  goods  —  germ  of  future 
sestheticism  —  implanted  in  the  American  Colo 
nies  ;  but  when  it  comes  to  pearls  and  diamonds, 
the  quiet  Salem  burgher,  descendant  of  three 
generations  of  devout  clergymen,  "  understands 
not  their  value."  Yet  he  believes  that  some  of 
them  will  sell  well,  even  in  1669 ! 

In  the  early  commerce  of  Salem  the  whale- 
fishery  took  the  lead;  and  this  same  John 
Higginson  at  one  time  petitioned  the  General 
Court  (or  State  Legislature)  to  recover  the 
value  of  a  whale  which  was  proved  to  have 
had  a  harpoon  sticking  in  it,  and  bearing  his 
mark,  but  which  had  afterward  been  harpooned 
and  brought  in  by  some  one  else.  Later,  the 


OLD   SALEM  SEA-CAPTAINS  17 

West  India  trade  flourished,  the  chief  imports 
being  sugar  and  molasses,  and  these  being  very 
much  checked  by  the  arbitrary  taxes  imposed 
by  the  British  government.  It  was  on  a  petition 
of  the  Salem  collector  for  a  warrant  to  search 
after  smuggled  molasses,  that  James  Otis  made 
his  celebrated  plea  against  writs  of  assistance. 
These  commodities  were  among  the  imports; 
and  they  were  paid  for,  first  and  chiefly,  by 
the  historic  codfish,  the  fish  whose  effigy  still 
adorns  the  Massachusetts  Representatives'  Hall, 
and  which  the  old  Salem  merchant,  Benjamin 
Pickman,  also  commemorated  with  carving  and 
gilding  on  each  stair  of  his  mansion  in  Salem, 
—  a  house  built  in  1740,  and  still  standing. 
Like  the  pious  Bishop  Willegis,  who  took  for 
his  crest  the  wheel,  his  early  labors  on  which 
were  regarded  as  plebeian  by  his  rivals,  so 
Benjamin  Pickman  exalted  the  codfish.  Other 
merchants  used  for  the  same  purpose  the  sym 
bolical  pineapple,  which  may  be  found  so  fre 
quently  carved  on  old  stairways  and  bureaus; 
and  possibly  the  scallop-shell,  which  so  often 
appears  on  colonial  furniture  or  cornices,  may 


18  TRAVELLERS   AND   OUTLAWS 

have  had  a  similar  association,  and  suggested 
"treasures  hid  in  the  sands." 

But  it  took  the  great  stress  of  the  Revolu 
tionary  war  to  evolve  the  old  Salem  sea-captain. 
During  that  war  it  is  hard  to  tell  how  the 
intercourse  between  Europe  and  the  Colonies 
would  have  been  kept  up,  with  Boston,  New 
port,  New  York,  Philadelphia,  Charleston,  and 
Savannah  successively  in  the  hands  of  the 
enemy,  but  for  the  merchants  and  mariners 
of  Salem,  Beverly,  and  Marblehead.  Salem 
alone  sent  out  one  hundred  and  fifty -eight 
armed  vessels,  carrying  in  all  more  than  two 
thousand  guns,  each  vessel  having  twelve  or 
fourteen.  They  took  four  hundred  and  forty- 
five  prizes,  fifty-four  out  of  their  own  fleet 
being  lost.  The  loss  of  the  vessels  was  to 
be  expected  ;  but  the  loss  from  history  of 
all  detailed  memorial  of  these  daring  men  is 
more  serious.  What  is  fame  that  preserves 
of  all  that  period  only  the  madcap  daring  of 
Paul  Jones,  and  forgets  the  solid  heroism 
of  Jonathan  Haraden? 

Jonathan  Haraden  was  born    in  Gloucester, 


OLD   SALEM   SEA-CAPTAINS  19 

but  was  taken  early  to  Salem  in  the  employ  of 
Richard  Cabot,  father  of  the  celebrated  presi 
dent  of  the  Hartford  Convention.  He  first 
went  to  sea  as  lieutenant,  then  as  captain,  of  a 
fourteen-gun  sloop  built  for  the  State  of  Massa 
chusetts,  and  bearing  a  name  that  would  have 
delighted  Wendell  Phillips,  —  the  "Tyranni 
cide."  In  her  he  helped  capture  a  British  naval 
vessel  that  was  carried  in  triumph  into  Salem 
Harbor.  Afterward  Haraden  was  put  in  com 
mand  of  the  "General  Pickering,"  a  Salem 
privateer  of  a  hundred  and  eighty  tons,  carrying 
fourteen  six-pounders,  and  a  crew  of  forty-five 
men  and  boys.  He  sailed  in  1780  with  a  cargo 
of  sugar  for  Bilboa,  then  a  resort  for  American 
privateers  and  prize  vessels.  On  his  passage  he 
had  a  two-hours'  fight  with  a  British  cutter  of 
twenty  guns,  and  beat  her  off,  but  on  entering 
the  Bay  of  Biscay  found  opportunity  for  an 
exploit  more  daring.  Running  by  night  along 
side  a  British  privateer  carrying  twenty-two 
guns  and  sixty  men,  he  ordered  her,  through 
his  trumpet,  to  "surrender  to  an  American 
frigate,  or  be  sunk."  The  astonished  English- 


20  TRAVELLERS   AND   OUTLAWS 

man  yielded,  and  came  on  board  to  find  himself 
outgeneralled.  A  prize  crew  was  put  on  the 
captured  vessel,  and  both  made  sail  for  Bilboa, 
when  they  were  met  by  a  king's  ship,  which,  as 
the  defeated  captain  told  Haraden  with  delight, 
was  the  "  Achilles,"  another  English  privateer, 
with  forty-two  guns  and  a  hundred  and  forty 
men.  "  I  sha'n't  run  from  her,"  said  Haraden 
coolly.  At  once  the  scene  changed;  the  big 
Englishman  recaptured  the  little  one,  then  lay 
alongside  Haradeii's  ship  all  night  to  fight  her 
next  day.  Haraden  took  a  sound  night's  sleep, 
and  recruited  a  boatswain  and  eight  sailors  from 
his  prisoners  in  the  morning,  when  they  went 
to  work. 

The  American  ship  seemed,  said  an  eye-wit 
ness,  like  a  long-boat  beside  a  man-of-war ; 
many  of  the  Englishman's  shot  went  over  her 
opponent,  while  she  herself  was  always  hit 
below  the  water-line  —  this  modern  Achilles, 
like  the  ancient,  proving  vulnerable  in  the  heel. 
A  final  broadside  of  crow-bars  from  Haraden 
had  great  effect,  and  "Achilles"  fled.  The 
"Pickering"  gave  chase,  and  Haraden  offered 


OLD   SALEM   SEA-CAPTAINS  21 

a  large  reward  to  his  gunner  if  he  would  carry 
away  a  spar;  but  no  such  luck  occurred,  and 
the  Englishman  got  off.  Haraden  recaptured 
his  first  prize,  which  had  thus  changed  hands 
thrice  in  twenty-four  hours,  and  went  into  port 
with  her.  The  battle  had  lasted  three  hours, 
being  fought  so  near  the  Spanish  coast  that  a 
hundred  thousand  spectators,  it  was  said,  lined 
the  shores ;  and  it  was  also  said,  that,  before  the 
"  Pickering  "  and  her  prize  had  been  half  an 
hour  at  anchor,  one  could  have  walked  a  mile 
over  the  water  by  stepping  from  boat  to  boat ; 
and  when  the  captain  landed  he  was  borne  in 
triumph  through  the  city  on  men's  shoulders. 
This  is  but  a  sample  of  this  bold  sailor's 
adventures.  On  another  occasion  still,  in  the 
"Pickering,"  he  fell  in  with  three  armed 
Englishmen  in  company,  carrying  respectively 
twelve,  fourteen,  and  sixteen  guns ;  and  he 
captured  each  in  succession  with  his  vessel, 
he  carrying  just  as  many  guns  as  the  largest 
of  the  enemy. 

Haraden    alone   took  more  than  a  thousand 
guns   from  the  British  during  the  war.     The 


22  TRAVELLERS  AND   OUTLAWS 

Salem  ships  intercepted  the  vessels  which  car 
ried  supplies  from  England  or  Nova  Scotia  to 
the  garrisons  in  New  York  and  Boston  ;  they 
cruised  in  the  Bay  of  Biscay,  and  in  the 
English  and  Irish  Channels;  they  raised  the 
insurance  on  British  ships  to  twenty-three  per 
cent,  and  obliged  a  large  naval  force  to  be 
constantly  employed  in  convoying  merchant 
men  ;  they,  moreover,  brought  munitions  of  war 
from  the  French  islands.  Some  sailed  as  priva 
teers  pure  and  simple;  others  under  "letters- 
of-marque,"  in  voyages  whose  privateering  was 
incidental,  but  where  the  dangers  incurred  were 
much  the  same.  Joseph  Peabody,  for  instance, 
sailed  from  Salem,  in  the  winter  of  1781,  as 
second  mate  of  the  letter-of-marque  "  Ranger," 
Capt.  Simmons,  carrying  seven  guns.  They 
took  a  cargo  of  salt,  sold  it  at  Richmond, 
Va.,  and  at  Alexandria  loaded  with  flour  for 
Havana.  Part  of  the  cargo,  being  from 
General  Washington's  plantation,  was  received 
at  Havana  at  the  marked  weight  :  all  was 
sold,  and  the  "Ranger"  returned  to  Alexandria 
for  another  freight.  Anchoring  at  the  mouth 


OLD   SALEM   SEA-CAPTAINS  23 

of  the  Potomac,  because  of  head-winds,  the 
officers  turned  in,  but  were  roused  before  mid 
night  by  the  watch,  with  news  that  large  boats 
were  coming  toward  the  ship  from  different 
directions.  Simmons  and  Peabody  rushed  to 
the  deck,  the  latter  in  his  night-clothes.  As 
they  reached  it,  a  volley  of  musketry  met 
them,  and  the  captain  fell  wounded.  Peabody 
ran  forward,  shouting  for  the  crew  to  seize 
the  boarding-pikes,  and  he  himself  attacked 
some  men  who  were  climbing  on  board.  Mean 
time  another  strange  boat  opened  fire  from 
another  quarter.  All  was  confusion.  They 
knew  not  who  were  their  assailants,  or  whence ; 
the  captain  lay  helpless,  the  first  officer  was 
serving  out  ammunition,  and  Peabody,  still 
conspicuous  in  his  white  raiment,  had  command 
of  the  deck.  Two  boats  were  already  grappled 
to  the  "Ranger:"  he  ordered  cold  shot  to  be 
dropped  into  them,  and  frightened  one  crew  so 
that  it  cast  off;  then  he  ordered  his  men  against 
the  other  boat,  shouting,  "  We  have  sunk  one, 
boys;  now  let  us  sink  the  other!"  His  men 
cheered;  and  presently  both  boats  dropped 


24  TRAVELLERS   AND   OUTLAWS 

astern,  leaving  one  of  the  "  Ranger's "  crew 
dead  and  three  wounded.  Peabody  himself 
was  hurt  in  three  places,  not  counting  the  loss 
of  his  club  of  hair,  worn  in  the  fashion  of  those 
days,  which  had  been  shot  clean  off,  and  was 
found  on  deck  the  next  morning.  The  enemy 
proved  to  be  a  guerrilla  band  of  Tories,  whose 
rendezvous  was  at  St.  George's  Island,  near 
where  the  "  Ranger "  lay  at  anchor.  There 
had  been  sixty  men  in  their  boats,  while  the 
crew  of  the  "  Ranger  "  numbered  twenty ;  and 
the  same  guerrillas  had  lately  captured  a  brig 
of  seven  guns  and  thirty  men  by  the  same 
tactics  which  the  promptness  of  Peabody  had 
foiled. 

On  such  tales  as  these  was  the  youth  of 
Salem  nourished  during  the  bitter  period  of  the 
American  Revolution.  That  once  over,  the 
same  bold  spirits  sought  wider  adventure. 
Joseph  Peabody  himself  lived  to  own,  first 
and  last,  eighty-three  ships,  which  he  freighted 
himself;  he  shipped  seven  thousand  seamen, 
and  promoted  forty-five  men  to  be  captains 
who  had  first  shipped  with  him  as  boys.  Other 


OLD   SALEM   SEA-CAPTAINS  25 

merchants,  of  whom  Elias  Hasket  Derby  was 
the  chief,  were  constantly  projecting  distant 
voyages,  and  taking  pains  to  bring  forward 
enterprising  young  men,  who  were  given  ven 
tures  of  their  own  as  captain  or  supercargo. 
These  were  often  the  sons  of  the  ship-owners, 
and,  aided  by  the  excellent  public  school*  of 
Salem,  became  officers  at  an  age  that  seems 
surprisingly  early.  Nathaniel  Silsbee,  the  eldest 
son  of  a  sea-captain,  went  to  sea  as  captain's 
clerk  at  fourteen ;  his  brother  William  did  the 
same  at  fifteen,  and  his  brother  Zachariah  at 
sixteen.  The  eldest  brother  was  in  command 
of  a  vessel  before  he  was  nineteen,  and  the  two 
others  before  they  were  twenty.  All  three 
retired  from  the  sea  when  under  twenty-nine. 
Capt.  Nathaniel  Silsbee  sailed  one  East-India 
voyage  of  nineteen  months,  at  the  beginning 
of  which  neither  he  nor  his  first  mate  (Charles 
Derby)  nor  his  second  mate  (Richard  Cleve 
land)  was  twenty  years  old.  My  own  grand 
father,  Stephen  Higginson,  —  afterward  member 
of  the  Continental  Congress,  —  commanded  one 
of  his  father's  ships  at  twenty-one.  His  double- 


26  TRAVELLERS   AND   OUTLAWS 

first  cousin,  George  Cabot,  —  afterward  the 
first  Secretary  of  the  Navy,  and  the  president 
of  the  Hartford  Convention,  —  left  Harvard 
College,  and  went  to  sea  at  sixteen  as  cabin- 
boy  under  his  brother-in-law,  Joseph  Lee ;  the 
traditional  opinion  expressed  in  the  family 
being,  that  "  Cap'n  Joe  would  put  George 
Cabot's  nose  to  the  grindstone,"  which  was 
doubtless  done.  At  twenty  he  was  himself  a 
captain.  In  the  slower  development  of  the 
present  day,  there  is  something  amusing  in  this 
carnival  of  youth. 

While  still  too  young  to  vote,  these  boys 
were  deemed  old  enough  to  open  new  channels 
of  trade,  penetrate  unknown  seas,  and  risk  col 
lision  with  the  great  naval  nations  of  Europe. 
They  had  to  make  their  own  charts ;  as,  for 
instance,  of  the  coast  of  Sumatra,  where  Capt. 
Jonathan  Carnes  of  Salem  first  discovered  that 
pepper  grew  wild,  and  then  made  his  way 
thither  on  a  secret  voyage.  The  private  charts 
of  this  difficult  coast,  prepared  on  "  pepper 
voyages "  by  Capt.  Charles  M.  Endicott  and 
Capt.  James  D.  Gillis,  were  recognized  and 


OLD   SALEM   SEA-CAPTAINS  27 

used  by  the  United-States  Navy  as  a  sufficient 
guide ;  and  when  Commodore  Wilkes  went  on 
his  famous  exploring  expedition,  he  took  with 
him  a  Salem  sea-captain  as  pilot,  Capt.  Benja 
min  Vanderford.  But  in  the  earlier  voyages 
there  were  still  greater  difficulties  than  these. 
Ships  were  then  rarely  coppered  ;  mathematical 
instruments  were  imperfect;  and  the  rig  of 
vessels  was  such  as  is  now  almost  vanished 
from  the  seas,  —  as,  for  instance,  that  of  the 
old  -  fashioned  cutter,  in  which  the  jib  was 
reefed  by  sliding  the  whole  bowsprit  inboard. 
Bowditch  —  himself  a  Salem  sea-captain  —  had 
not  yet  prepared  his  "  Practical  Navigator ;  " 
but  the  favorite  encyclopaedia  among  East- 
India  traders  was  Guthrie's  "  Geographical 
Grammar,"  —  a  quaint  old  book,  which  I  re 
member  in  my  grandfather's  library,  and  wrhich 
contained  the  vaguest  descriptions  of  all  the 
remoter  countries  of  the  earth. 

There  exists  an  impression,  not  wholly 
unfounded,  that  these  ship-masters  derived 
some  advantage  from  the  fact  that,  sailing  in 
American  vessels,  they  at  least  had  American 


28  TRAVELLERS  AND   OUTLAWS 

crews.  This  was  true,  no  doubt,  when  they 
first  left  home  ;  but  as  the  voyages  lasted  for  a 
year  or  two,  and  often  involved  trans-shipment, 
or  even  the  sale  and  purchase  of  vessels  in 
foreign  ports,  the  more  difficult  part  of  the  trip 
was  usually  made  without  this  advantage. 
From  the  manuscripts  of  a  typical  Salem 
sea-captain  —  Capt.  Richard  J.  Cleveland,  for 
which  I  am  indebted  to  his  son,  H.  W.  S. 
Cleveland  of  Minneapolis  —  it  is  easy  to  show 
with  what  kind  of  material  these  men  had  to 
deal.  Writing  of  a  voyage  from  Havre  to  the 
Isle  of  France  in  1798,  he  says,  — 

"It  was  not  till  the  last  hour  that  I  was  in  Havre 
(even  while  the  visiting  officers  were  on  board)  that  I 
finally  shipped  my  crew.  Fortunately  they  were  all  so 
much  in  debt  as  not  to  want  any  time  to  spend  their 
advance,  but  were  ready  at  the  instant ;  and  with  this 
motley  crew  (who,  for  aught  I  knew,  were  robbers  or 
pirates),  I  put  to  sea.  That  you  may  form  some  idea  of 
the  fatigue  and  trouble  I  have  had,  I  will  attempt  to 
describe  them  to  you. 

"  At  the  head  of  the  list  is  my  mate,  a  Nantucket  lad, 
whom  I  persuaded  the  captain  of  a  ship  to  discharge 
from  before  the  mast,  and  who  knew  little  or  nothing  of 


OLD    SALEM   SEA-CAPTAINS  29 

navigation,  but  is  now  capable  of  conducting  the  vessel 
in  case  of  accident  to  me.  The  first  of  my  foremast 
hands  is  a  great  surly,  crabbed,  rawboned,  ignorant 
Prussian,  who  is  so  timid  aloft  that  the  mate  has 
frequently  been  obliged  to  do  his  duty  there.  I  believe 
him  to  be  more  of  a  soldier  than  a  sailor,  though  he  has 
often  assured  me  that  he  has  been  boatswain's  mate  of  a 
Dutch  Indiainan,  which  I  do  not  believe,  as  he  hardly 
knows  how  to  put  two  ends  of  a  rope  together.  He 
speaks  enough  English  to  be  tolerably  understood.  The 
next  in  point  of  consequence  is  my  cook,  —  a  good- 
natured  negro  and  a  tolerable  cook,  so  unused  to  a  vessel 
that  in  the  smoothest  weather  he  cannot  walk  fore  and 
aft  without  holding  on  to  something  with  both  hands. 
This  fear  proceeds  from  the  fact  that  he  is  so  tall  and 
slim,  that,  if  he  should  get  a  cant,  it  might  be  fatal  to 
him.  I  did  not  think  America  could  furnish  such  a 
specimen  of  the  negro  race  (he  is  a  native  of  Savannah), 
nor  did  I  ever  see  such  a  perfect  simpleton.  It  is  impos 
sible  to  teach  him  any  thing;  and  notwithstanding  the 
frequency  with  which  we  have  been  obliged  to  take  in 
and  make  sail  on  this  long  voyage,  he  can  hardly  tell  the 
main  halyards  from  the  main-stay.  He  one  day  took  it 
into  his  head  to  learn  the  compass ;  and  not  being  per 
mitted  to  come  on  the  quarter-deck  to  learn  by  the  one  in 
the  binnacle,  he  took  off  the  cover  of  the  till  of  his  chest, 
and  with  his  knife  cut  out  something  that  looked  like  a 
cart-wheel,  and  wanted  me  to  let  him  nail  it  on  the  deck 


30  TRAVELLERS   AND   OUTLAWS 

to  steer  by,  insisting  that  he  could  '  teer  by  him  better'n 
tudder  one.' 

"  Next  is  an  English  boy  of  seventeen  years  old,  who, 
from  having  lately  had  the  small-pox,  is  feeble  and 
almost  blind,  —  a  miserable  object,  but  pity  for  his  mis 
fortunes  induces  me  to  make  his  duty  as  easy  as  possible. 
Finally,  I  have  a  little  ugly  French  boy,  the  very  image 
of  a  baboon,  who,  from  having  served  for  some  time  on 
different  privateers,  has  all  the  tricks  of  a  veteran  man- 
of-war's  man,  though  only  thirteen  years  old,  and,  by 
having  been  in  an  English  prison,  has  learned  enough  of 
the  language  to  be  a  proficient  in  swearing.  To  hear  all 
these  fellows  quarrelling  (which  from  not  understanding 
each  other  they  are  very  apt  to  do),  serves  to  give  one  a 
realizing  conception  of  the  confusion  of  tongues  at  the 
Tower  of  Babel.  Nobody  need  envy  me  my  four  months' 
experience  with  such  a  set,  though  they  are  now  far 
better  than  when  I  first  took  them." 

The  skill  and  tact  shown  by  the  commanders 
in  handling  these  motley  crews  are  well  illus 
trated  by  this  extract  from  the  manuscripts  of 
another  typical  Salem  sea-captain,  Nathaniel 
Silsbee.  The  scene  is  on  board  a  ship  bought 
by  himself  at  the  Isle  of  France,  and  on  the 
homeward  trip  to  Salem  in  1795.  The  whole 
crew,  except  himself  and  his  younger  brother, 


OLD  SALEM  SEA-CAPTAINS  31 

—  both  being  then  under  the  age  of  twenty- 
three,  —  had  been  shipped  at  the  Isle  of  France, 
and  was  made  up  uof  all  the  nations  of  the 
earth."  The  greater  part  of  the  voyage  having 
been  made  in  safety,  he  found  himself  in  this 
critical  position :  — 

"  A  short  time  before  our  arrival  at  Boston,  we  were 
for  two  days  in  company  with,  and  but  a  few  miles  from, 
a  schooner  which  we  suspected  to  be  a  privateer  watch 
ing  for  a  favorable  opportunity  to  attack  us.  Having  on 
board  the  ship  six  guns  and  twenty-five  men,  I  was 
determined  to  resist,  as  far  as  practicable,  the  attack  of 
any  small  vessel.  On  the  afternoon  of  the  second  day 
that  this  vessel  had  been  dogging  us,  she  bore  down  upon 
us,  with  an  apparent  intention  of  executing  what  we  had 
supposed  to  be  her  purpose,  and  which  we  were,  as  I 
had  imagined,  prepared  to  meet ;  but  on  calling  our  crew 
to  the  quarters  which  had  previously  been  assigned  to 
them,  I  was  informed  by  one  of  my  officers  that  there 
were  four  or  five  of  the  seamen  who  were  unwilling  thus 
to  expose  themselves,  alleging  that  they  had  neither 
engaged  nor  expected  to  'fight.'  On  hearing  this,  all 
hands  being  on  deck,  I  ordered  every  passage-way  which 
led  below  deck,  excepting  that  leading  to  the  cabin,  to 
be  securely  fastened,  then  calling  to  me  such  of  the  crew 
as  had  not  engaged  to  fight,  I  immediately  sent  them  up 


32  TRAVELLERS  AND  OUTLAWS 

the  shrouds  to  repair  the  ratlines,  and  to  perform  other 
duties  which  they  had  engaged  to  do,  in  the  most  exposed 
parts  of  the  ship. 

"  Finding  themselves  thus  exposed  to  greater  danger 
than  their  shipmates,  they  requested,  before  the  schooner 
had  come  within  gun-shot  of  us,  to  be  recalled  from  their 
then  situation,  and  allowed  to  participate  in  the  defence 
of  the  ship,  which  request  was  granted.  All  our  six 
guns  were  placed  on  one  side  of  the  ship,  and  we  suc 
ceeded,  by  a  simultaneous  discharge  of  the  whole  of  them, 
as  soon  as  the  schooner  had  approached  within  the  reach 
of  their  contents,  in  causing  her  to  haul  off  and  hasten 
from  us ;  but  whether  this  was  caused  by  an  unexpected 
resistance  on  our  part,  or  by  any  damage  caused  by 
that  resistance,  we  could  not  ascertain.  I  felt  quite  as 
willing  to  be  rid  of  her,  however,  as  any  one  of  her  crew 
could  have  been  to  be  rid  of  us." 


But  it  was  not  so  much  in  dealing  with  their 
own  men  that  the  qualities  of  manhood  were 
tested  in  these  sea-captains  as  in  encountering 
the  insolence  of  foreign  officials,  and  the 
attempts  of  warring  nations  to  crush  out  these 
daring  invaders.  There  was  as  yet  no  powerful 
nationality  to  appeal  to,  no  naval  squadron  at 
their  back.  No  other  ship  within  five  hundred 


OLD   SALEM   SEA-CAPTAINS  33 

miles,  perhaps,  carried  the  United-States  flag. 
They  must  rely,  in  order  to  be  respected,  on 
their  own  address  and  courage  alone.  When 
Capt.  Nathaniel  Silsbee,  on  his  way  to  India 
in  the  ship  "Portland,"  in  1798,  put  in  at 
Cadiz,  he  heard  for  the  first  time  of  the 
"  decrees  "  of  the  French  government  making 
liable  to  condemnation  any  vessel,  of  whatever 
nation,  having  on  board  any  article  grown  or 
manufactured  in  Great  Britain  or  any  of  its 
colonies.  This  greatly  enhanced  all  prices  in 
Mediterranean  ports,  as  well  as  the  risk  of 
capture ;  and  Silsbee  at  once  sold  half  his 
cargo,  to  be  delivered,  at  the  risk  of  the  pur 
chaser,  at  Leghorn  or  Genoa.  He  then  laid 
his  plans  to  deliver  it,  put  on  shore  some 
English  coal  he  had,  and  all  his  English  books ; 
erased  the  name  of  the  English  maker  from  his 
nautical  instruments;  and  cautioned  the  crew, 
if  questioned,  "  to  say,  what  was  the  truth," 
that  they  were  not  taken  on  board  until  after 
the  cargo  was  put  in,  and  therefore  did  not 
know  whence  it  came.  He  was  captured  by  a 
French  privateer  off  Malaga,  and  was  carried 


34  TRAVELLERS  AND   OUTLAWS 

before  the  French  consul  in  that  city.  The 
consul,  before  whom  the  Spanish  authorities 
were  utterly  prostrate,  asked  him  a  dozen 
questions,  and  demanded  an  answer  "  in  five 
words."  Silsbee  replied  that  this  was  impossi 
ble,  and  called  for  an  immediate  and  thorough 
investigation,  which,  he  said,  would  not  take 
long,  and  would  undoubtedly  clear  him.  The 
consul  said  that  there  were  a  number  of  prizes 
in  harbor,  and  that  his  case  probably  would  not 
come  on  for  two  months.  Silsbee  informed  him 
that  this  was  the  extreme  of  injustice,  and  that 
he  should  not  leave  the  consular  office,  except 
by  force,  until  his  case  had  been  settled.  He 
accordingly  sat  in  his  chair,  without  sleep  or 
food,  for  more  than  twenty-four  hours,  after 
which  the  consul,  either  admiring  his  pluck  or 
exhausted  by  his  obstinacy,  gave  him,  rather  to 
his  astonishment,  a  free  discharge.  He  learned 
afterward  that  the  consul,  when  asked,  "Why 
did  you  discharge  the  Yankee  so  quickly  ?  "  had 
answered,  "  I  found  that  I  must  either  dismiss 
him  or  bury  him,  and  I  preferred  the  former." 
The  mere  accident  of  keeping  a  diary  is  often 


OLD   SALEM   SEA-CAPTAINS  35 

a  preservative  of  fame ;  and  the  best  type  of 
these  adventurous  Salem  sailors  will  always 
be  Capt.  Richard  J.  Cleveland,  who  was  just 
now  mentioned.  The  first  instalment  of  his 
own  reminiscences  was  given  in  the  North 
American  Review  for  October,  1827;  and  his 
u Voyages  and  Commercial  Enterprises"  were 
first  published  collectively  in  1842,  and  afterward 
reprinted  in  1850.  There  lies  before  me  a 
further  collection  of  manuscript  extracts  from 
his  diaries  and  letters,  and  the  same  Defoe-like 
quality  runs  through  them  all.  He  was  my 
father's  own  cousin,  and  I  remember  him  well 
in  my  childhood,  when  he  had  reached  the 
haven  of  the  custom-house,  after  occupying  for 
a  time  the  temporary  retreat,  for  which  every 
sailor  sighs,  of  a  small  farm  in  the  country.  He 
was  then  a  serene  old  man,  with  a  round  apple- 
shaped  head,  a  complexion  indelibly  sunburnt, 
and  a  freshness  of  look  which  bore  testimony  to 
the  abstemiousness  of  his  life ;  for  he  asserts  that 
he  never  had  tasted  spirituous  liquors,  or,  indeed, 
any  thing  stronger  than  tea  and  coffee,  nor  had 
he  ever  used  tobacco.  In  his  mouth  a  single 


36  TRAVELLERS  AND  OUTLAWS 

clove-pink  was  forever  carried.  I  remember 
him  as  habitually  silent,  yielding  admiringly  to 
the  superior  colloquial  powers  of  a  very  lively 
wife,  yet  easily  lured  into  the  most  delightful 
yarns  when  she  happened  to  be  absent.  Then 
he  became  our  Ulysses  and  our  Robinson  Crusoe 
in  one.  The  whole  globe  had  been  his  home. 
It  could  be  said  of  him,  as  Thoreau  says  of  the 
sailor  brother  in  a  country  farmhouse,  that  he 
knew  only  how  far  it  was  to  the  nearest  port, 
no  more  distances,  all  the  rest  being  only  seas 
and  distant  capes.  He  had  grown  to  be  a 
perfect,  practical  philosopher;  Epictetus  or 
Seneca  could  have  taught  him  no  further  lessons 
as  to  acquiescence  in  the  inevitable ;  and  yet 
there  was  an  unquenched  fire  in  his  quiet  eyes 
that  showed  him  still  to  have  the  qualities  of 
his  youth.  It  was  easy  to  fancy  him  issuing 
from  his  sheltered  nook  to 

"  point  the  guns  upon  the  chase, 
Or  bid  the  deadly  cutlass  shine," 

like  his  namesake,  that  other  Captain  Cleveland 
in  Scott's  "  Pirate,"  which  we  were  just  then 
reading. 


OLD  SALEM  SEA-CAPTAINS  37 

One  of  Cleveland's  best  feats  was  the  per 
formance  of  a  voyage,  then  unexampled,  from 
Macao  to  the  north-west  coast  of  America  and 
back,  for  the  purchase  of  furs, — a  voyage  made 
the  more  remarkable  by  the  fact  that  it  was 
achieved  in  a  cutter-sloop  of  fifty  tons,  with  a 
crew  of  the  worst  description,  without  any 
printed  chart  of  the  coast,  and  in  the  teeth  of 
the  monsoon.  It  was  essential  to  his  success  to 
reach  his  destination  before  the  arrival  of 
certain  ships  that  had  been  despatched  from 
Boston  round  Cape  Horn ;  and  his  plan  was  to 
procure  a  vessel  small  enough  to  keep  near  the 
coast  of  Asia,  taking  advantage  of  all  favor 
able  currents,  and  making  a  port,  though  an 
unknown  one,  every  night.  In  his  letters  to 
his  father  he  frankly  says  that  his  plan  is  pro 
nounced  impracticable  by  all  experienced  ship 
masters  at  the  port ;  "  but  since  nobody  has  ever 
tried  it,  how  can  it  be  asserted  to  be  impractic 
able  ?  "  They  all  predicted  that  he  might  sail  a 
month  without  making  any  progress,  and  would 
then  return,  if  at  all,  with  sails  and  rigging  torn 
to  pieces.  "I  was,"  he  coolly  says,  "not 


38  TRAVELLERS  AND   OUTLAWS 

pleased  with  such  gloomy  prospects;  but  con 
cluded  that  if  I  was  to  meet  ruin,  it  might  as 
well  be  by  being  torn  to  pieces  on  the  China 
coast  as  to  arrive  on  the  coast  of  America  after 
the  object  of  my  voyage  had  been  secured  by 
other  vessels."  So  he  sailed  Jan.  30,  1799, 
with  twenty-five  on  board,  —  two  Americans, 
the  rest  Irish,  Swedes,  French,  and  chiefly 
English,  the  last  mostly  deserters  from  men- 
of-war  and  Botany-Bay  ships,  —  "  a  list  of  as 
accomplished  villains  as  ever  disgraced  a 
country."  The  work  was  so  hard  that  the 
precious  crew  soon  mutinied,  and  refused  one 
morning  to  weigh  anchor.  In  preparation  for 
this,  he  had  stored  all  provisions  near  the  cabin, 
and  he  coolly  informed  them  that  they  could 
not  eat  until  they  worked;  and  so  mounted 
guard  for  twenty-four  hours,  with  two  or  three 
men,  including  the  black  cook.  His  muskets 
were  flintlocks,  and  revolvers  were  not  yet 
introduced  ;  but  he  had  two  four-pound  cannon 
loaded  with  grape.  It  then  occurred  to  him, 
that,  if  he  offered  to  set  them  on  shore,  they 
would  soon  have  enough  of  it.  They  caught  at 


OLD  SALEM   SEA-CAPTAINS  39 

the  proposal ;  but  the  Chinese  would  not  keep 
or  feed  them  on  land,  nor  the  captain  take  them 
on  board  next  day  ;  pointing  a  cannon,  be  bade 
them  keep  off.  He  then  went  to  the  shore  in 
an  armed  boat,  and  offered  to  take  them  on 
board  one  by  one.  Several  came  eagerly ;  but 
when  it  turned  out  that  the  boatswain  and  one 
other  ringleader  were  not  to  be  taken  back  on 
any  terms,  these  two  desperadoes  presented  their 
knives  at  the  breasts  of  the  others,  and  swore 
that  they  should  not  stir.  Some  yielded ;  others 
were  sullenly  indifferent;  one  lay  intoxicated 
on  the  beach.  It  was  like  one  of  the  mutineer- 
ing  scenes  in  Stevenson's  "Treasure  Island." 
At  last  all  but  six  were  brought  on  board, 
and  thenceforth  behaved  well,  having  probably 
coincided  by  this  time  with  their  young  captain, 
who  quietly  writes  to  his  father,  "No  grosser 
miscalculation  of  character  was  ever  made  than 
by  these  men  in  supposing  that  they  could 
accomplish  their  object  by  threats  or 
intimidations." 

They  kept  on  their  formidable  voyage,  often 
finding   themselves,  after  a   toilsome    day,  set 


40  TRAVELLERS  AND   OUTLAWS 

back  leagues  on  their  way ;  grazing  on  rocks, 
caught  in  whirlpools,  threatened  by  pirates. 
The  diminished  crew  proved  an  advantage, 
as  they  had  to '  be  put  on  allowance  of  provis 
ions  at  any  rate.  In  thirty  days  they  sighted 
the  north  end  of  Formosa,  and  had  performed 
that  part  of  the  trip  deemed  impracticable ; 
then  they  crossed  the  North  Pacific  amid 
constant  storms,  and  anchored  in  Norfolk 
Sound  on  March  30,  1799,  after  a  voyage  of 
two  months,  and  in  advance  of  almost  all  com 
peting  vessels.  Even  those  which  had  arrived 
from  Boston  were  at  disadvantage,  being  much 
larger,  and  unable  to  penetrate  the  innumerable 
bays  and  inlets  on  the  north-west  coast.  Putting 
up  a  screen  of  hides  round  the  deck,  and  never 
letting  more  than  one  native  on  board  at  once, 
Cleveland  concealed  the  smallness  of  his  crew, 
and  eluded  attack,  though  the  Indian  canoes 
were  often  larger  than  his  little  vessel.  On  one 
occasion  his  cutter  ran  on  a  rock,  and  lay  there 
twenty-four  hours,  at  such  an  angle  that  no  one 
could  stand  on  deck,  the  Indians  fortunately 
not  discovering  his  plight.  At  last  the  vessel 


OLD   SALEM   SEA-CAPTAINS  41 

floated  with  returning  tide ;  and  after  two 
months'  traffic  they  reached  China,  Sept.  15,  by 
way  of  the  Sandwich  Islands,  laden  with  a  cargo 
worth  sixty  thousand  dollars,  the  sea-otter  skins 
that  had  been  bought  at  the  rate  of  eight  for  a 
musket  selling  for  thirty-six  dollars  apiece.  His 
deserters  had  reached  Wampoa  before  him,  and 
all  Cleveland's  friends  had  believed  their  asser 
tion  that  he  was  dead. 

The  youthfulness  of  these  men  gave  a  flavor 
of  impulse  and  adventure  to  the  soberest  mer 
cantile  enterprises.  They  made  up  their  plans 
for  some  voyage  round  the  globe,  as  blithely 
as  if  it  were  a  yachting-trip.  It  seemed  like 
commerce  on  a  lark,  and  yet  there  was  always 
a  keen  eye  to  business.  Cleveland  and  his 
friend  Shaler,  —  whose  "  Sketches  of  Algiers  " 
has  still  a  place  in  the  literature  of  travel,  — 
having  come  together  from  the  Isle  of  France 
to  Copenhagen,  formed  the  project  of  a  voyage 
round  Cape  Horn.  They  bought  at  Hamburg 
an  American  brig  of  one  hundred  and  seventy- 
five  tons,  the  "Lelia  Byrd,"  tossed  up  a  coin 
to  decide  which  should  go  as  captain  and  which 


42  TRAVELLERS  AND   OUTLAWS 

as  supercargo,  invited  a  delightful  young  Polish 
nobleman,  the  Count  de  Rouissillon,  to  accom 
pany  them,  and  sailed  Nov.  8,  1801,  for  a  two- 
years'  voyage,  the  oldest  of  the  three  not  being 
yet  thirty  years  old.  In  these  days,  when 
every  little  remote  port  of  the  globe  has  been 
visited  and  described  in  full,  its  manners 
sketched,  its  channels  laid  down  in  a  chart, 
and  its  commercial  resources  fully  known,  it 
is  impossible  to  appreciate  the  uncertain  and 
vague  delights  of  such  an  expedition.  Every 
entry  into  a  new  harbor  might  imply  a  fortune 
or  a  prison  ;  for  Spain  had  not  yet  lost  its 
control  of  the  regions  they  were  to  visit,  but 
claimed  the  right  to  monopolize  the  commerce 
of  all.  For  each  port  there  was  some  pompous 
official  to  be  managed  or  bribed ;  and  in  general, 
where  any  injustice  had  been  done  to  them,  the 
pluck  and  ready  wit  of  the  young  Americans 
carried  the  day.  More  than  once,  after  having 
been  actually  imprisoned,  and  ordered  out  of 
the  port,  they  quietly  refused  to  weigh  anchor 
until  their  wrongs  had  been  redressed  and"  an 
apology  made.  On  one  occasion,  after  going 


OLD   SALEM   SEA-CAPTAINS  43 

on  shore  with  a  boat's  crew  to  rescue  some 
of  their  own  men  who  had  been  improperly 
detained,  they  carried  off  the  Spanish  guard 
also ;  and  then  sailed  within  musket-shot  of  a 
fort  garrisoned  by  a  hundred  men,  compelling 
their  prisoners  to  stand  conspicuously  by  the 
bulwarks,  in  order  to  ward  off  the  fire  from 
the  battery.  Nevertheless,  they  were  under  fire 
for  half  an  hour.  One  shot  struck  them  just 
above  the  water-line,  and  several  cut  the  sails 
and  rigging.  The  Spaniards  had  eight  nine- 
pound  guns,  the  Americans  had  only  three- 
pounders  ;  but  when  the  latter  got  within  range, 
the  Spanish  soldiers  fled,  and  in  ten  minutes 
the  fight  was  done.  This  was  at  San  Diego, 
CaL,  and  we  have  the  testimony  of  Mr.  Richard 
H.  Dana  that  it  was  still  vividly  remembered 
upon  that  coast  thirty  years  later.  When  the 
"  Lelia  Byrd  "  was  safe,  the  prisoners  were  set 
on  shore ;  and  the  Americans  had  soon  after 
a  several-days'  visit  from  the  "jolly  padres," 
as  Cleveland  calls  them,  of  the  old  Spanish 
missions,  who  took  uproarious  satisfaction  in 
the  whole  affair,  and  agreed  that  the  Spanish 


44  TRAVELLERS  AND   OUTLAWS 

commandant,  Don  Manuel  Rodriguez,  ought 
to  be  sent,  back  to  the  mother  country  as  a 
poltroon. 

The  pioneer  Salem  vessel  in  the  Eastern 
trade  was  apparently  the  "  Grand  Turk,"  a 
ship  of  three  hundred  tons,  built  for  a  privateer 
by  Elias  Hasket  Derby.  She  carried  twenty- 
two  guns,  and  took  many  prizes.  The  war 
being  over,  she  was  sent  by  her  owner  on  the 
first  American  voyage  to  the  Cape  of  Good 
Hope  in  1781,  the  cargo  consisting  largely  of 
rum.  The  voyage  proved  profitable ;  and  Capt. 
Jonathan  Ingersoll,  her  commander,  bought  in 
the  West  Indies,  on  his  return,  enough  of  Gre 
nada  rurn  to  load  two  vessels,  sent  home  the 
"  Grand  Turk,"  and  came  himself  in  the  "  At 
lantic."  On  the  way  he  rescued  the  captain 
and  mate  of  an  English  schooner,  the  "  Amity," 
whose  crew  had  mutinied  and  set  them  adrift 
in  a  boat.  By  one  of  those  singular  coinci 
dences  of  which  maritime  life  then  seemed  to 
yield  so  many,  this  very  schooner  was  after 
ward  recaptured  in  Salem  Harbor  in  this  way : 
After  their  arrival,  the  captain  of  the  "  Amity  " 


OLD   SALEM   SEA  CAPTAINS  45 

was  sitting  with  Mr.  Derby  in  his  counting- 
room,  and  presently  saw  through  the  spyglass 
his  own  vessel  in  the  offing.  Mr.  Derby, 
popularly  known  in  those  days  as  "  King- 
Derby,"  put  two  pieces  of  ordnance  on  board 
one  of  his  brigs,  and  gave  the  English  captain 
the  unlooked-for  pleasure  of  recapturing  the 
"  Amity,"  to  the  great  astonishment  of  the  mu 
tineers. 

This  was  not  the  only  pioneer  expedition 
of  the  "  Grand  Turk,"  which  also  made,  in 
1785-86,  the  first  direct  voyage  from  New  Eng 
land  to  the  Isle  of  France  and  China.  There 
exists  a  picture  of  this  celebrated  vessel,  on  a 
punch-bowl  made  for  Mr.  Derby  in  China,  and 
still  preserved  in  the  collections  of  the  East- 
India  Marine  Society  at  Salem,  side  by  side 
with  what  may  be  called  the  official  punch 
bowl  of  the  society  itself,  bearing  the  date 
of  1800,  and  adorned  with  a  graphic  design 
representing  the  ship-building  of  that  period. 
Another  similar  design  may  be  found  on  the 
quaint  certificates  of  membership  of  the  same 
society,  dated  in  1796 ;  and  many  memorials  of 


46  TRAVELLERS  AND   OUTLAWS 

the  maritime  life  of  those  days  are  preserved 
by  this  honored  association  itself  and  by  the 
Essex  Institute.  For  more  than  half  a  cen 
tury  the  merchants  and  shipmasters  of  Salem 
vied  with  each  other  in  bringing  home  Ori 
ental  curiosities  for  this  museum,  —  weapons, 
costumes,  musical  instruments,  carriages,  mod 
els  of  ships,  culminating  in  a  great  wooden  idol 
that  once  stood  alone  in  a  desert  on  the  Sand 
wich  Islands.  This  unique  collection  is  now, 
through  the  wide  munificence  of  George  Pea- 
body,  secured  for  all  future  generations. 

Another  ship  of  King  Derby's,  the  "As- 
trsea,"  was  the  first  to  make  the  direct  voyage 
to  Canton,  in  1789  ;  and  his  ship  the  "  Atlantic  " 
first  displayed  the  American  flag  at  Bombay 
and  Calcutta  in  1788,  and  the  brig  "Sally" 
first  did  the  same  at  Batavia  in  1796.  A  Salem 
captain,  James  Devereux,  on  a  Boston  vessel, 
first  visited  Japan  in  1799;  and  the  Salem 
ship  "  Margaret "  went  there  two  years  later, 
half  a  century  before  the  country  was  freely 
opened  to  commerce  by  Commodore  Perry. 
The  schooner  "  Ilajah,"  from  Salem,  first  reached 


OLD  SALEM  SEA-CAPTAINS  47 

Sumatra  in  1793.  The  "  Astraea  "  from  Salem 
entered  the  port  of  Manila  in  1796 ;  and  there 
exists  a  manuscript  log-book  of  her  voyage,  by 
Nathaniel  Bowditch,  the  mathematician,  who 
was  on  board.  The  stars  and  stripes  were  first 
floated  at  Mocha  by  Capt.  Joseph  Ropes,  of 
the  ship  "  Recovery,"  in  1798.  The  authorities 
of  the  place  could  not  be  made  to  understand 
whence  she  came,  or  how  many  moons  she  had 
been  sailing ;  but  they  readily  took  their  share, 
perhaps,  of  the  fifty  thousand  dollars  which  he 
carried  with  him  in  specie  to  invest  in  coffee. 
The  trade  with  the  Feejee  Islands,  Madagascar, 
and  Zanzibar,  was  opened  later ;  and  that  with 
Surinam,  Cayenne,  and  other  South-American 
ports,  was  carried  on  during  all  this  period. 
With  Senegal  and  the  West  Coast  of  Africa,  the 
Salem  trade  began  in  1789 ;  the  two  schooners 
"  Sally  "  and  "  Polly  "  —  seductive  creatures  — 
first  teaching  the  poor  Africans  the  taste  of 
rum.  It  must  be  remembered  that  the  expor 
tation  of  cotton  had  not  then  begun ;  it  was 
even  imported  in  small  quantities  from  the 
West  Indies  and  Demerara;  and  the  cargoes 


48  TRAVELLERS  AND   OUTLAWS 

brought  from  the  East  Indies  were  at  first 
chiefly  paid  for  in  furs  from  the  North-west 
Coast  and  in  Spanish  dollars. 

Mr.  Derby  alone,  according  to  Osgood  and 
Batchelder's  "Historical  Sketches  of  Salem," 
caused  one  hundred  and  twenty-five  voyages 
to  be  made  in  fourteen  years  (1785-99)  by 
thirty-seven  different  vessels,  forty-five  of  these 
voyages  being  to  the  East  Indies  or  China.  He 
rarely  bought  or  sold  on  credit,  and  there  were 
then  no  banks,  so  that,  while  his  large  ships 
were  on  their  Oriental  voyages,  his  smaller  ones 
were  sent  to  Gottenburg  and  St.  Petersburg  for 
iron,  duck,  and  hemp  ;  to  France,  Spain,  and 
Madeira,  for  wine  and  lead;  to  the  West  Indies, 
for  spirits ;  and  to  New  York,  Philadelphia, 
and  Richmond,  for  flour,  provisions,  iron,  and 
tobacco.  Accumulating  for  himself  the  largest 
fortune  left  in  this  country  during  the  last  cen 
tury, —  a  million  dollars,  —  he  obtained  also  the 
more  important  memorial  of  gratitude  and  affec 
tion  from  the  young  men  whom  he  trained  and 
encouraged.  To  him  primarily  the  nation  also 
owed  the  building  of  the  frigate  "Essex,"  the 


OLD  SALEM   SEA-CAPTAINS  49 

pride  of  the  earlier  navy.  When,  in  1798,  we 
were  apparently  about  to  engage  in  a  war 
with  France,  and  had  no  naval  force,  Congress 
authorized  President  Adams  to  accept  such 
vessels  as  private  citizens  might  build,  paying 
for  them  in  a  six  per  cent  stock.  Salem 
responded  at  once ;  a  subscription  was  opened 
by  Mr.  Derby  with  ten  thousand  dollars,  fol 
lowed  by  William  Gray  with  the  same  sum ; 
others  put  down  smaller  amounts,  some  in 
money,  some  in  work,  till  seventy-five  thousand 
dollars  were  raised,  and  the  frigate  "Essex" 
was  built.  Among  her  contractors  was  the 
veteran  Capt.  Haraden,  who  supplied  a  part 
of  the  cordage ;  her  large  cables  being  borne  in 
procession  to  the  ship,  attended  by  martial 
music.  She  was  launched  Sept.  30,  1799, 
carried  thirty-two  guns,  and  proved  the  fastest 
ship  in  the  navy,  as  well  as  one  of  the  cheapest. 
Capt.  Edward  Preble  was  her  first  actual 
commander,  and  Farragut  served  as  a  midship 
man  on  board.  She  was  credited  with  taking 
two  millions  of  dollars  in  prizes  from  the  enemy 
during  the  subsequent  war  with  England,  in 


50  TRAVELLERS  AND   OUTLAWS 

which  she  was  captured  at  last ;  while  the  stock 
in  which  she  was  paid  for  fell  to  fifty  cents  on 
the  dollar  before  the  war  was  over,  with  but 
few  purchasers.  In  other  words,  half  her  value 
was  practically  given  to  the  government  by  the 
citizens  of  Salem. 

It  will  be  remembered  that  the  prime  cause 
of  the  war  of  1812  against  England  was  the 
assumed  right  on  the  part  of  English  naval 
officers  to  search  American  vessels  for  seamen. 
In  how  zealous  a  manner  this  right  was 
exercised,  is  well  shown  in  the  following  extract 
from  the  manuscript  recollections  of  Nathaniel 
Silsbee.  The  narrative  makes  it  also  clear 
with  what  zeal  the  Salem  men,  who  had  heard 
the  tale  of  Edward  Hulen,  must  have  shipped 
on  board  the  Salem  privateers  when  it  came 
to  open  war.  The  events  here  described  took 
place  in  1796  :  — 

"  In  the  course  of  the  few  days  that  I  remained  at 
Madras,  one  of  those  occurrences  took  place  which  more 
than  any  and  all  others  led  to  the  late  war  between  the 
United  States  and  Great  Britain.  I  received  a  note  early 
one  morning  from  my  chief  mate,  apprising  me  that  one 


OLD  SALEM  SEA-CAPTAINS  51 

of  my  sailors  (Edward  Hulen,  a  fellow-townsman  whom 
I  had  known  from  boyhood)  had  been  impressed  and 
taken  on  board  of  a  British  frigate  then  lying  in  port. 
On  receiving  this  intelligence  I  immediately  went  on 
board  my  ship,  and,  having  there  learnt  all  the  facts  in 
the  case,  proceeded  to  the  frigate,  where  I  found  Hulen, 
and  in  his  presence  was  informed  by  the  first  lieutenant 
of  the  frigate  that  he  had  taken  Hulen  from  my  ship 
under  a  peremptory  order  from  his  commander  *  to  visit 
every  American  ship  in  port,  arid  to  take  from  each  of 
them  one  or  more  of  their  seamen.'  With  that  informa 
tion  I  returned  to  the  shore,  and  called  upon  Capt. 
Cook,  who  commanded  the  frigate,  and  sought,  first  by 
all  the  persuasive  means  that  I  was  capable  of  using,  and 
ultimately  by  threats  to  appeal  to  the  government  of  the 
place,  to  obtain  Hulen's  release,  but  in  vain.  I  then, 
with  the  aid  of  the  senior  partner  of  one  of  the  first 
commercial  houses  of  the  place,  sought  the  interference 
and  assistance  of  the  civil  authorities  of  the  port,  but 
without  success,  it  being  a  case  in  which  they  said  they 
could  not  interfere. 

"In  the  course  of  the  day  I  went  again  to  th"e  frigate, 
and,  in  the  presence  of  the  lieutenant,  tendered  to  Hulen 
the  amount  of  his  wages,  of  which  he  requested  me  to 
give  him  only  ten  dollars,  and  to  take  the  residue  to 
his  mother  in  Salem;  on  hearing  which  the  lieutenant 
expressed  his  perfect  conviction  that  Hulen  was  an 
American  citizen,  accompanied  by  a  strong  assurance, 


52  TRAVELLERS  AND  OUTLAWS 

that,  if  it  was  in  his  power  to  release  him,  he  should  not 
suffer  another  moment's  detention,  adding  at  the  same 
time,  that  he  doubted  if  this  or  any  other  circumstance 
would  induce  Capt.  Cook  to  permit  his  return  to  my 
ship.  It  remained  for  me  only  to  recommend  Hulen  to 
that  protection  of  the  lieutenant  which  a  good  seaman 
deserves,  and  to  submit  to  the  high-handed  insult  thus 
offered  to  the  flag  of  my  country,  which  I  had  no  means 
of  either  preventing  or  resisting  beyond  the  expression 
of  my  opinion  of  it  to  the  said  Capt.  Cook,  which  took 
place  in  the  presence  of  other  British  officers,  and  in 
terms  dictated  by  the  then  excited  state  of  my  feelings. 
After  several  years'  detention  in  the  British  navy,  and 
after  the  peace  of  Amiens,  Hulen  returned  to  Salem, 
and  lived  to  perform  services  on  board  privateers  owned 
in  Salem,  in  the  late  war  between  this  country  and 
England." 

Of  the  two  hundred  and  fifty  privateers  sent 
out  during  the  war  of  1812,  Salem  furnished 
forty,  Baltimore  and  New  York  alone  exceeding 
her.  The  Salem  fleet  carried  in  all  a  hundred 
and  eighty-nine  cannon.  Of  these  the  schooner 
"Fame,"  a  mere  fishing-boat  of  thirty  tons, 
with  two  guns  and  thirty  men,  received  her 
commission  at  noon,  sailed  in  the  afternoon, 
and  sent  the  first  prize  into  Salem.  The  sec- 


OLD   SALEM  SEA-CAPTAINS  53 

ond  prize  was  sent  in  by  the  "Jefferson,"  a 
boat  of  only  fourteen  tons,  carrying  one  gun 
and  twenty  men.  The  "  America,"  belonging 
to  George  Crowninshield  and  Sons,  was  claimed 
to  be  the  swiftest  vessel  afloat  during  the  war, 
—  a  ship  of  three  hundred  and  fifty  tons,  carry 
ing  twenty  guns  and  a  hundred  and  fifty  men, 
and  capturing  twenty-six  prizes  with  more  than 
a  million  dollars.  She  was  commanded  succes 
sively  by  Capt.  Joseph  Ropes  and  Capt.  Benja 
min  Chever,  jun.  With  this  war  the  palmy 
days  of  Salem  seafaring  substantially  closed, 
although  this  narrative  might  well  be  expanded 
to  take  in  the  description  of  "Cleopatra's 
Barge,"  a  pleasure  -  yacht  of  a  hundred  and 
ninety-seven  tons,  built  in  1816  by  George 
Crowninshield,  and  once  sent  by  him  to  St. 
Helena,  with  several  ladies  of  the  Bonaparte 
family  on  board,  in  the  abortive  design  of  res 
cuing  the  Emperor  Napoleon.  She  was  the 
first  American  yacht  to  cross  the  Atlantic ;  and 
it  is  a  curious  illustration  of  the  Salem  nautical 
training,  that  the  black  cook  on  this  yacht, 
who  had  sailed  under  Bowditch,  was  found  as 


54  TRAVELLERS   AND   OUTLAWS 

capable  of  keeping  a  ship's  reckoning  as  any 
of  the  officers. 

A  type  of  character  so  strong  as  that  of  the 
old  Salem  sea -captains  conld  not  well  pass 
away  in  America  without  making  its  final  mark 
on  the  politics  as  well  as  the  business  of  the 
nation.  In  the  fierce  strife  between  Federalists 
and  Democrats,  these  men  not  only  took  the 
Federalist  side  as  a  body,  but  it  was  for  a 
time  recognized  as  incarnated  in  them.  A  few 
of  them,  indeed,  were  followers  of  Jefferson ; 
and  it  is  an  interesting  fact,  that  Capt.  Richard 
Cleveland  himself,  writing  to  his  father  from 
off  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope,  early  in  1798,  thus 
indicated  the  very  point  of  view  that  led  within 
a  few  years  to  the  famous  embargo  for  which 
the  New-England  ship-owners  reproached  Jef 
ferson  so  bitterly :  "  You  may  perhaps  laugh 
at  me,"  he  said,  "  and  call  it  Quixotism ;  but  I 
believe,  if  we  would  keep  our  ships  at  home, 
and  entirely  withhold  our  supplies,  we  could  be 
more  than  a  match  for  these  two  noisy  powers 
united  [England  and  France].  I  see  no  reason 
why  we  can't  live  for  a  time  without  foreign 


OLD   SALEM   SEA-CAPTAINS  55 

commerce."  Again,  Nathaniel  Silsbee,  when 
first  chosen  to  Congress,  was  nominated  against 
Timothy  Pickering  as  a  Democrat  (or,  as  it 
was  then  called,  Republican),  yet  he  records 
in  his  autobiography,  that  he  was  opposed  in 
this  respect  to  nearly  all  his  circle  of  friends ; 
and  it  is  well  understood  that  "  Billy  "  Gray, 
who  was,  after  Derby,  the  most  important  of 
the  Salem  merchants,  left  that  town  in  1809 
to  reside  in  Boston,  because  of  his  unpopularity 
with  the  Federalists  as  a  supporter  of  the 
embargo.  Two  of  the  Crowninshield  brothers 
were  Secretaries  of  the  Navy  under  Jefferson 
and  Madison.  These  were  the  exceptions  that 
proved  the  rule.  Salem  was  Federalist,  and 
the  headquarters  of  Federalism  was  Salem. 
The  strength  of  that  strong  and  concentrated 
party  was  in  the  merchants  of  Essex  County, 
almost  all  of  whom  had  been  shipmasters  in 
their  youth.  This  fact  is  forever  established 
by  the  very  phrase,  "  Essex  Junto."  Timothy 
Pickering  says  that  the  first  time  he  heard  this 
phrase  was  from  President  John  Adams,  in 
1797,  and  that  the  three  men  whom  he  named 


56  TRAVELLERS  AND   OUTLAWS 

as  constituting  the  clique  were  George  Cabot, 
Stephen  Higginson,  and  Theophilus  Parsons, 
—  in  other  words,  two  ex-sea-captains,  and  the 
chief  maritime  lawyer  of  his  time.  The  habit 
of  the  quarter-deck  went  all  through  the  Feder 
alist  party  of  Massachusetts:  the  slaveholders 
themselves  did  not  more  firmly  believe  that 
they  constituted  the  nation.  To  the  "Essex 
Junto,"  Jefferson  himself  seemed  but  a  muti- 
neering  first  mate,  and  his  "  rights  of  man  "  but 
the  black  flag  of  a  rebellious  crew.  They  paid 
the  penalty  of  their  own  autocratic  habit :  they 
lived  to  see  their  cause  lost;  but  they  went 
down  with  their  flags  flying,  having  had  the 
satisfaction,  —  if  satisfaction  it  was,  —  to  see 
most  of  their  cargo  of  political  principles  trans 
ferred  bodily  to  the  hold  of  their  victor. 


A  REVOLUTIONARY   CONGRESSMAN 
ON   HORSEBACK 


rTlHE  Honorable  William  Ellery  mounted  his 
horse  at  Dighton,  Mass.,  on  the  20th  of 
October,  1777,  proposing  to  ride  nearly  five 
hundred  miles  to  York,  Penn.,  where  he  was  to 
resume  his  duties  as  a  member  of  the  Conti 
nental  Congress.  He  had  gone  home  in  July 
to  attend  to  his  private  affairs  ;  and  during  his 
absence  the  Congress,  which  then  sat  continu 
ously,  had  been  driven  from  Philadelphia  by  the 
approach  of  the  British  ;  and  it  was  now  at  York, 
where  it  remained  until  the  following  year. 

William  Ellery  was  now  a  man  of  nearly 
fifty  years  of  age,  having  been  born  Dec.  22, 
1727.  He  had  been  chosen  to  Congress  in 
May,  1776  ;  had  signed  the  great  Declaration  ; 
and  had,  as  he  records,  stood  long  by  the 
secretary's  desk  to  watch  the  bearing  of  his 

57 


58  TRAVELLERS   AND   OUTLAWS 

fellow-signers.  In  return  for  this  patriotic 
service,  the  British  troops  had  hastened  to  burn 
his  house  at  Newport,  on  their  taking  posses 
sion  of  Rhode  Island,  so  that  his  family  were 
now  residing  at  Dighton,  Mass.  It  was  from 
this  village,  therefore,  that  he  and  his  son-in- 
law  —  the  Hon.  Francis  Dana  of  Massachusetts 
—  were  to  ride  together  to  the  Congress,  of 
which  both  were  members.  Mr.  Dana  was  the 
father,  ten  years  later,  of  Richard  Henry  Dana, 
the  poet,  lately  deceased,  whose  long  career 
thus  nearly  linked  the  present  moment  with 
that  autumnal  morning  when  his  father  and 
grandfather  mounted  their  horses  for  their 
journey. 

It  was  an  important  time  in  the  history  of 
the  Revolution.  The  first  flying  rumors  of 
Burgoyne's  surrender  were  arriving;  but  an 
interest  more  absorbing  must  have  been 
attached,  in  Mr.  Ellery's  mind,  to  an  expedition 
just  organized  by  Gen.  Spencer  to  drive  the 
British  from  Rhode  Island.  The  attempt  was 
carried  so  far  that  the  Continental  troops  were 
actually  embarked  in  boats  at  Tiverton,  when 


A  CONGRESSMAN    ON   HORSEBACK  59 

news  came  that  the  British  were  already 
warned,  and  the  surprise  had  failed.  The 
expedition  was  at  once  abandoned,  much  to 
the  dissatisfaction  of  Congress ;  but  all  this 
was  not  foreseen  by  Mr.  Ellery,  who,  as  we 
shall  see,  was  anxiously  listening  for  the  sound 
of  cannon,  and  hoping  for  a  military  triumph 
that  should  almost  eclipse  that  already  won 
over  Burgoyne. 

We  can  fancy  the  two  worthy  gentlemen, 
booted  and  spurred,  wearing  the  full-skirted 
coat,  the  long  waistcoat,  and  the  small-clothes 
of  the  period ;  and  bestriding  their  stout  horses, 
after  due  inspection  of  girths  and  saddle-bags. 
With  Mr.  Dana's  man-servant  riding  soberly 
behind  them,  they  "sat  out,"  as  the  diary 
always  phrases  it,  on  their  month's  journey. 
They  were  to  meet  the  accustomed  perils  by 
field  and  flood;  to  be  detained  for  days  by 
storms ;  to  test  severely  the  larders  of  their 
hosts ;  to  be  sometimes  driven  from  their  beds 
by  cold  and  wet,  or  from  the  very  house 
through  exhaustion  of  fire-wood,  —  all  this  in 
time  of  war,  moreover,  near  the  hostile  lines, 


60  TRAVELLERS   AND   OUTLAWS 

and  in  the  occasional  society  of  stragglers  from 
either  army.  Such  travelling  was  a  good 
school  for  courage,  endurance,  and  patience ;  it 
brought  public  men  into  singularly  close  con 
tact  with  their  constituents  ;  and  afforded,  on 
the  whole,  a  manly  and  invigorating  experience, 
though  one  that  was  often  comfortless  to  the 
last  degree.  It,  moreover,  gave  perpetual 
opening  for  unexpected  acquaintance  and  odd 
adventure,  —  opportunities  never  wasted  upon 
a  born  humorist  like  William  Ellery.  He  jour 
neyed,  we  may  be  sure,  with  his  eyes  wide 
open ;  and  by  no  means  sheltered  himself 
behind  the  immunities,  if  such  there  were,  of 
a  Congressman  and  a  "signer."  Indeed,  he 
says  of  himself,  when  he  had,  on  one  occasion, 
to  seek  some  special  privilege  of  travel :  — 

"  Had  I  announced  myself  a  member  of  Congress, 
who  would  have  believed  me  ?  —  for,  setting  aside  my 
spectacles,  there  is,  I  am  sure,  no  dignity  in  my  person 
or  appearance." 

This  modest  self-depreciation  is  by  no  means 
justified  by  Mr.  Ellery's  portrait;  but  it  at 


A   CONGRESSMAN   ON   HORSEBACK  61 

least  enhances  the  symbolic  value  of  his  spec 
tacles,  and  the  appropriateness  of  their  pres 
ervation  among  the  relics  now  to  be  seen  at 
Independence  Hall,  Philadelphia. 

The  first  and  most  elaborate  of  the  travel 
ling  diaries  opens  as  follows  :  — 

"Sat  out  from  Dighton  in  Mass.  Bay,  in  Company 
with  the  Honble  Francis  Dana  Esq.  Oct.  20th  1777  at 
half  past  One,  arrived  at  my  good  old  Friend's  Abraham 
Redwood  Esq.  in  North  Providence  in  the  Evening ;  and 
was  detained  there  (21st)  the  next  Day  by  a  Storm. 

"22d. — Rode  to  Judge  Greene's  (Warwick)  to  dine, 
and  reached  Judge  Potter's,  So.  Kingston,  in  ye  Evening. 

"2Sd.  —  Last  night  it  was  said  Cannon  were  heard' 
towards  Newport.  Drank  Tea  with  Mr.  Champlin  whose 
wife  was  ill  of  a  Sore  Throat. 

»££{/i.  —  The  Weather  was  lowering  and  that  and  the 
Prospect  of  hearing  something  of  the  Newport  Expedi 
tion  detained  us  at  Judge  Potter's.  This  Day  had  a 
Confirmation  of  the  glorious  News  of  the  Surrendry  of 
the  Col  of  the  Queen's  Light  Dragoons  with  his  whole 
army.  Learn  hence  proud  Mortals  the  ignominious  end 
of  the  vain  boaster.  Gave  a  Spur  to  Spencer  by  letter. 

"25th.  —  The  "Weather  still  lowering  and  wet,  abode 
at  Judge  Potter's.  Saw  the  New  London  Paper  which 
certified  the  News  of  Burgoyne's  Surrendry.  Not  a 
word  of  the  Newport  Expedition. 


62  TRAVELLERS  AND   OUTLAWS 

"  26th.  —  Still  dark  and  lowering.  The  Weather  unfit 
for  journeying.  Good  Quarters  in  a  Storm  takes  off  its 
force  and  renders  it  less  disagreeable,  llemained  still 
at  Judge  Potter's. 

"27th.  —  The  Storm  brews,  the  Wind  increasing,  and 
the  Rain 

"  28th.  —  The  Storm  tremendous.  F.  D.  in  the  Course 
of  the  last  Six  Days  hath  devoured  Six  Quarts  of  Apples 
and  Milk. 

"20th.  —  Storm  abated,  but  the  Weather  still  foul 
and  unfit  for  traveling  —  more  apples  and  milk. 

"  30th.  —  Fair  Weather.  We  sat  off.  —  Judge  Potter 
accompanied  us  to  Mr.  Marchant's,  and  until  the  lload 
by  Mr.  Marchant's  meets  the  great  Country  Road  to 
Little  Rest,  where  we  parted. — Before  we  sat  out  left 
a  letter  for  General  Whipple  and  my  Wife.  Dined 
pretty  well  at  Brown's  a  private  house  in  Hopkinton 
about  13  or  14  miles  from  Judge  Potter's.  After  dinner 
rode  to  Tyler's,  which  is  now  a  private  house  opposite 

to  the  Revd. Hart's  Meeting  House,  drank  a  Dish 

of  Coffee  in  the  Evening  and  were  waited  upon  by  a 
good  female  Body,  who  was  almost  consumed  with  the 
Hysterics  of  Religion  —  vide  Dr.  Lardner's  Credibility 
of  the  Gospel  History." 

In  spite  of  this  disrespectful  reference  to 
religious  hysterics,  it  seems  that  our  travellers 
did  not  proceed  upon  their  journey  on  Sunday. 


A  CONGRESSMAN  ON  HORSEBACK      63 

"We  spent  the  Sabbath  at  Hartford.  In  the  after 
noon  heard  Mr.  Strong  preach  a  good  Sermon,  and  most 
melodious  Singing.  The  Psalmody  was  performed  in 
all  its  Parts,  and  Softness  more  than  Loudness  seemed 
to  be  the  Aim  of  the  Performers.  In  the  Evening  waited 
upon  Gov.  Trumbull  and  was  pleased  to  find  so  much 
Quickness  of  apprehension  in  so  old  a  Gentleman.  Con 
necticut  have  collected,  and  ordered  Taxes  to  the  Amount 
of  One  hundred  thousand  Pounds  more  than  they  had 
issued.  Brave  Spirits!  " 

Gov.  Trumbull  was  revered  as  the  only 
colonial  governor  who  took  the  patriotic  side ; 
and  is  also  likely  to  be  held  in  permanent  fame 
as  the  author  of  the  phrase  "  Brother  Jona 
than."  He  was  at  this  time  but  sixty-seven ; 
yet  that  may  have  seemed  an  advanced  age 
to  William  Ellery,  at  fifty,  since  the  latter 
could  not  have  foreseen  that  he  himself  should 
live  to  be  ninety-two,  and  should  retain  his 
"  quickness  of  apprehension  "  to  the  last.  After 
this  burst  of  enthusiasm  we  are  soon  brought 
back  to  the  question  of  the  larder,  always  so 
important  on  a  horseback  journey. 

"  NOL\  3d.  —  Left  Hartford  and  bated  at  Farmington, 
at  Lewis'  about  12  miles  from  Hartford;  from  thence 


64  TRAVELLERS  AND   OUTLAWS 

rode  to  Yale's  12  miles,  where  Mr.  F.  D.  dined  on 
Three  Pints  of  Milk  and  Cake  lightened  with  Scraps, 
and  W.  E.  dined  on  Bread  and  Milk  Punch.  —  From 
thence  rode  through  Herrington  over  the  worst  road 
I  ever  passed*  to  Litchfield,  where  we  lodged  with 
Genl.  Wolcott,  and  were  kindly  entertained.  He  had 
lately  returned  from  the  Northern  Army,  where  he 
commanded  a  Number  (300  I  think)  of  Volunteers, 
which  he  had  collected  by  his  influence.  He  gave  us 
an  account  of  the  Surrendry  of  the  menacing  Meteor, 
which  after  a  most  portentous  Glare  had  evaporated 
into  Smoke  (Gov.  Livingston's  Speech  to  the  Assembly, 
Fishkill  Papers,  Sept.  4th)  and  gave  it  as  his  Opinion 
that  the  Army  under  Genl.  Gates  at  the  Time  of  ye 
Capitulation  [of  Burgoyne]  did  not  exceed  12,000  men." 

Coming  nearer  the  seat  of  war,  our  trav 
ellers  felt  its  discomforts ;  first,  in  the  ruin 
ous  condition  of  the  bridges,  and  then  in  the 
presence  of  troops  and  in  nocturnal  alarms. 
The  following  extracts  show  these  annoy 
ances  :  — 

"Nov.  4th- — Left  Litchfield  about  nine  o'clock.  .  .  . 
The  Bridges  along  this  road  from  Hartford  are  some 
of  them  entirely  destroyed,  and  all  of  them  out  of 
repair,  owing  to  the  constant  passing  of  heavy  loaded 
wagons  and  the  late  heavy  storm.  On  our  way  to 


A  CONGRESSMAN  ON  HORSEBACK      65 

Flower's  we  passed  over  Chepaug  a  long,  crazy  Bridge, 
and  between  Flower's  and  Camp's  over  Housatonick 
Bridge,  which  was  held  together  by  a  few  Wedges.  — 
After  we  left  Chepaug  Bridge  the  Road  to  Camp's  was 
good. 

"  Nov.  5th. — Rode  to  Danbury  where  we  break 
fasted  at  a  private  house,  after  having  visited  every 
Inn  for  Accomodations  but  in  vain;  some  were  crowded 
with  Soldiers,  and  others  void  of  every  necessary  arti 
cle  of  Entertainment.  Danbury  is  eleven  miles  from 
Camp's.  We  intended  when  we  left  Litchfield  to 
have  gone  to  Peekskill,  and  there  to  have  crossed 
the  North  River ;  but,  when  we  got  to  Danbury,  were 
dissuaded  from  it  by  the  Person  at  whose  house  we 
breakfasted ;  who  told  us  that  there  were  Tories  and 
Horse-stealers  on  that  Road.  This  account  arid  it  be 
ing  late  in  the  forenoon  that  it  was  impossible  to 
reach  Peekskill  by  Night,  and  not  being  able  to  pro 
cure  a  Lodging  in  Danbury,  occasioned  us  to  take 
the  Fishkill  Road ;  Accordingly  we  sat  off,  bated  at 
the  Foot  of  Quaker  Hill,  about  7  miles  from  Danbury, 
and  reached  Col.  Ludinton's,  8  miles  from  the  fore 
going  stage,  at  night.  Here  mens  meminisse  horret  !  We 
were  told  by  our  landlady  the  Colonel  was  gone  to 
New  Windsor,  that  there  was  a  Guard  on  the  Road 
between  Fishkill  and  Peekskill,  that  one  of  the  Guard 
had  been  killed  about  six  miles  off,  and  that  a  man 
not  long  before  had  been  shot  at  on  the  Road  to 


66  TRAVELLERS  AND   OUTLAWS 

Fishkill,  not  more  than  3  miles  from  their  house  ;  and 
that  a  Guard  had  been  placed  there  for  some  time 
past  and  had  been  dismissed  only  three  days.  We 
were  now  in  a  doleful  pickle,  not  a  male  in  the  house 
but  Don  Quixote  and  his  man  Sancho  and  poor  Pill 
Garlick,1  and  no  Lodging  for  the  first  and  last  but  in 
a  lower  room  without  any  Shutters  to  the  windows,  or 
Locks  to  the  Doors.  —  What  was  to  be  done?  What 
could  be  done?  In  the  first  place  we  fortified  our 
Stomachs  with  Beefsteaks  and  Grogg,  and  then  went 
to  work  to  fortify  ourselves  against  an  attack.  —  The 
Knight  of  the  woeful  Countenance  asked  whether  there 
were  any  Guns  in  the  house.  Two  were  produced. 
One  of  them  in  good  order.  Nails  were  fixed  over 
the  windows,  the  Guns  placed  in  a  corner  of  the  room, 
a  pistol  under  each  of  our  pillows,  and  the  Hanger 
against  the  bed-post ;  thus  accoutred  and  prepared 
at  all  points,  our  heroes  went  to  bed.  —  Whether 
the  valiant  knight  slept  a  wink  or  not,  Pill  Garlick 
cannot  say ;  for  he  was  so  overcome  with  fatigue  and 
his  animal  Spirits  were  so  solaced  with  the  beef  and 

1  Mr.  Ellery  gives  the  names  of  Don  Quixote  and  Sancho  to  Judge 
Dana  and  his  servant;  and  employs  the  name  "  Till  Garlick  "  or  "  Pil 
garlick  "  for  himself.  This  last  word  has  now  passed  out  of  use,  but  it 
was  often  employed  in  books  of  the  last  century  as  a  substitude  for  the 
first  person  singular,  especially  in  case  of  a  lonely  person  or  one  grow 
ing  old.  Several  derivations  have  been  assigned  for  it;  these  may  be 
found  in  (Jrosi-'s  Dictionary  and  Brewer's  Phrase  and  Fable. 


A  CONGRESSMAN  ON  HORSEBACK      67 

Grogg,  that  every  trace  of  fear  was  utterly  erased  from 
his  imagination,  and  he  slept  soundly  from  Evening- 
till  Morning  without  any  interruption,  save  that  about 
midnight,  as  he  fancieth,  he  was  waked  by  his  Com 
panion  with  this  interesting  Question  delivered  with 
a  tremulous  voice:  'What  noise  is  that?', He  listened 
and  soon  discovered  that  the  noise  was  occasioned  by 
some  rats  gnawing  the  head  of  a  bread-cask.  After 
satisfying  the  Knight  about  the  noise,  He  took  his 
second  and  finishing  nap." 

The  next  day  it  snowed.  The  fire-wood 
at  this  house  gave  out,  and  they  were  forced 
to  ride  five  miles  in  the  storm  to  the  next 
stopping-place.  Then  follows  a  picture  of  a 
rustic  "interior,"  as  quaint  and  homely,  and 
almost  as  remote  from  the  present  New  Eng 
land,  as  if  painted  by  Wilkie  or  Van  Os- 
tade :  — 

"  We  were  ushered  into  a  room  where  there  was  a 
good  fire,  drank  a  dish  of  Tea,  and  were  entertained  dur 
ing  great  part  of  the  Evening  with  the  Music  of  the 
Spinning-wheel  and  wool-cards,  and  the  sound  of  the 
shoemaker's  hammer ;  for  Adriance  had  his  shoemaker's 
bench,  his  wife  her  great  wheel  and  their  girl  her 
wool-card  in  the  room  where  we  sat.  This  might  be 


68  TRAVELLERS  AND   OUTLAWS 

disagreeable  to  your  delicate  macaroni  gentry;  but  by 
elevating  our  voices  a  little,  we  could  and  did  keep  up 
conversation  amidst  the  music ;  and  the  reflection  on 
the  advantages  resulting  from  Manufactures,  joined 
to  the  good-nature  of  our  landlord  and  his  wife,  made 
the  evening  pass  off  very  agreeably." 

The  next  extract  gives  us  a  glimpse  of  John 
Hancock,  who  had  just  resigned  the  presidency 
of  Congress,  and  was  on  his  way  home :  — 

"  Nov.  7th. — Breakfasted  at  Adriance's,  and  sat  off 
for  Fishkill  where  we  arrived  at  noon.  Could  get  no 
provender  for  our  horses,  but  at  the  Contl  [Continen 
tal,  i.  e.  military]  Stables.  Waited  upon  Gen.  Putnam 
who  was  packing  up  and  just  about  setting  off  for 
White  Plains.  Chatted  with  him  a  while,  and  then 
put  off  for  the  Contl  Ferry  at  the  North  River.  (Fish- 
kill  is  eleven  miles  from  Adriance's  and  the  Ferry  six 
miles  from  Fishkill.)  In  our  way  to  the  Ferry  we  met 
President  Hancock  in  a  sulkey,  escorted  by  one  of 
his  Secretaries  and  two  or  three  other  gentlemen,  and 
one  Light-horse-man.  This  escort  surprised  us  as  it 
seemed  inadequate  to  the  purpqse  either  of  defence 
or  parade.  But  our  surprise  was  riot  xof  long  continu 
ance  ;  for  we  had  not  rode  far  before  we  met  six  or 
eight  Light-horse-men  on  the  canter,  and  just  as  we 
reached  the  Ferry  a  boat  arrived  with  many  more. 


A  CONGRESSMAN  ON  HORSEBACK      69 

These  with  the  Light-horse-men  and  the  gentlemen 
before  mentioned  made  up  the  escort  of  Mr.  Pres 
ident  Hancock,  —  Who  would  not  be  a  great  man  ?  I 
verily  believe  that  the  President,  as  he  passed  through 
the  Country  thus  escorted,  feels  a  more  triumphant 
satisfaction  than  the  Col.  of  the  Queen's  Regiment  of 
Light  Dragoons  attended  by  his  whole  army  and  an 
escort  of  a  thousand  Militia.  We  had  a  pleasant  time 
across  the  Ferry,  and  jogged  on  to  Major  Dubois  a 
Tavern  about  9  or  10  miles  from  thence,  where  we  put 
up  for  the  night.  We  were  well  entertained,  had  a 
good  dish  of  tea,  and  a  good  beef-steak.  We  had 
neither  ate  or  drank  before  since  we  breakfasted. 
Dr.  Cutter  invited  us  to  dine  with  him  at  Fishkill ; 
but  it  was  not  then  dinner  time  and  we  were  anxious 
to  pass  Hudson  and  get  on." 

This  allusion  to  Burgoyne  is,  of  course,  a 
sarcasm,  the  thousand  militia-men  being  the 
Continental  troops  that  escorted  his  army  to 
its  place  of  detention  at  Cambridge,  Mass. 
The  next  glimpse  must  be  of  the  Moravian 
settlement  at  Bethlehem,  Penn.,  —  a  haven  of 
luxurious  comfort  to  the  unfortunate  travellers 
of  those  days  :  — 

"Nov.  m/j.  — Breakfasted  at  Carr's,  and  rode  12 
miles  to  Easton,  where  we  baited.  We  passed  the  Dela- 


70  TRAVELLERS  AND   OUTLAWS 

«ware  with  Genl  Fermoy  without  making  ourselves  known 
to  him.  From  Easton  we  rode  in  the  Rain  to  Bethlehem 
for  the  sake  of  good  accommodation,  and  were  invited 
by  Mr.  Edwine  one  of  the  Ministers  of  the  Moravian 
Society  who  had  been  so  kind  as  to  show  me  the  public 
buildings  when  I  was  at  Bethlehem  the  last  June.  When 
Congress  were  here  in  their  way  to  York ;  they  ordered 
that  the  House  of  the  single  women  should  not  be  occu 
pied  by  the  Soldiery  or  in  any  way  put  to  the  use  of 
the  Army;  and  that  as  little  disturbance  as  possible 
should  be  given  to  this  peaceful  Society,  which  Mr. 
Edwine  took  notice  of  with  great  gratitude.  —  A  num 
ber  of  sick  and  wounded  were  here,1  a  considerable 
quantity  of  baggage  and  Guards;  —  and  a  number  of 
Light-horse  were  at  Nazareth,  feeding  on  the  hay  and 
grain  of  the  Society,  which  I  found  was  disagreeable; 
but  at  the  same  time  perceived  that  they  did  not  choose 
to  complain  much  lest  their  complaints  should  be  thought 
to  proceed  not  so  much  from  their  sufferings  as  from  a 
dislike  to  the  American  Cause.  This  people,  like  the 
Quakers  are  principled  against  bearing  Arms;  but  are 
unlike  them  in  this  respect,  they  are  not  against  paying 

1  One  of  these  invalids  was  Lafayette,  who  was  wounded  at  the 
battle  of  Brandywine,  Sept.  11,  and  was  taken  to  Bethlehem  in  the  car- 
riage  of  Henry  Laurens  on  the  removal  of  Congress.  Pulaski  afterward 
visited  Lafayette  at  Bethlehem,  and  was  subsequently  presented  with 
a  banner  by  the  Moravian  sisterhood,  —  an  incident  well  known  through 
an  early  poem  by  Longfellow. 


A  CONGRESSMAN  ON   HORSEBACK  71 

such  taxes  as  Government  may  order  them  to  pay  towards 
carrying  on  War,  and  do  not  I  believe,  in  a  sly  under 
hand  way  aid  and  assist  the  Enemy  while  they  cry 
Peace,  Peace,  as  the  manner  of  some  Quakers  is,  not  to 
impeach  the  whole  body  of  them. 

"Nov.  IWi.  —  Continued  at  Bethlehem,  the  weather 
being  very  cold  and  the  wind  high,  and  our  horses  want 
ing  rest,  and  to  have  their  shoes  repaired.  Fared  exceed 
ingly  well,  drank  excellent  Madeira,  and  fine  green  tea, 
and  ate  a  variety  of  well-cooked  food  of  a  good  quality 
and  lodged  well. 

"Nov.  12th. — Baited  at  Snell's  9  miles,  and  ate  a 
tolerable  veal  cutlet.  Snell  is  a  good  Whig." 

Then  comes  another  picture  of  the  discom 
forts  of  a  late  autumnal  journey  :  — 

"  Nov.  12th.  —  The  fore  part  of  this  day  was  filled  with 
snow  squalls,  which  proved  peculiarly  irksome  to  Mr. 
Dana's  servant,  whose  Surtout  was  stolen  from  him  the 
eve'ng  before  at  Johnston's  by  some  Soldier.  The  after 
noon  was  comfortable  but  the  eve'ng  was  windy  and 
exceedingly  cold.  The  room  in  which  we  sat  and  lodged 
admitted  the  cold  air  at  a  thousand  chinks,  and  our 
narrow  bed  had  on  it  only  a  thin  rug  and  one  sheet.  We 
went  to  bed  almost  completely  dressed,  but  even  that 
would  not  do.  It  was  so  cold  that  I  could  not  sleep. 
What  would  I  not  have  given  to  have  been  by  my  fire-side. 


72  TRAVELLERS  AND   OUTLAWS 

I  wished  a  thousand  times  that  the  Old-Fellow  had  our 
landlady.  Our  fellow  lodgers  suffered  as  much  as  we 
did,  and  if  they  had  read  Tristam  Shandy's  chapter  of 
curses,  and  had  remembered  it  would  have  cursed  her 
through  his  whole  catalogue  of  curses.  What  added  to 
the  infamousness  of  this  Tavern  was  the  extreme  squalid- 
ity  of  the  room,  beds,  and  every  utensil.  I  will  conclude 
my  story  of  this  Sink  of  Filth  and  Abomination  with  a 
circumstance  which,  while  it  shows  that  our  dirty  land 
lady  had  some  idea  of  neatness,  must  excite  a  contemptu 
ous  smile.  —  The  table  on  which  we  were  to  breakfast 
was  so  inexpressibly  nasty  that  we  begged  she  would  put 
a  clean  napkin  on  it,  to  which  this  simplex  munditiis 
objected  that  the  coffee  might  dirty  the  cloth.  —  I 
intended  to  have  finished  here ;  but  the  avarice  of  this 
Mass  of  Filth  was  as  great  as  her  sluttislmess,  —  was  so 
great  that  I  cannot  forbear  noticing  it.  Notwithstand 
ing  we  had  nothing  of  her  but  a  bit  of  a  Hock  of  pork, 
boiled  a  second  time,  and  some  bread  and  butter  (we 
found  our  own  tea  and  coffee)  and  hay  and  oats  for  our 
horses;  this  Daughter  of  Lycurgus  charged  for  Mr.  Dana, 
myself  and  servant,  thirty-eight  shillings  lawful  money." 

The  next  day  Mr.  Ellery  met  other  eminent 
men,  following  in  the  steps  of  Hancock.  The 
main  work  of  the  session  being  through,  and 
military  operations  being  almost  closed  by  the 


A  CONGRESSMAN  ON   HORSEBACK  73 

approach  of  winter,  Samuel  Adams  had  for  the 
first  time  received  leave  of  absence  from  Con 
gress,  while  John  Adams  had  been  appointed 
commissioner  to  France;  and  they  journeyed 
homeward  together. 

"  Nov.  13th.  —  Met  Mr.  Samuel  and  Mr.  John  Adams 
about  9  miles  from  Levan's,  and  hard  by  a  tavern.— 
They  turned  back  to  the  Inn,  where  we  chatted,  and  ate 
bread  and  butter  together.  They  were  to  my  great  sor 
row  bound  home.  I  could  not  but  lament  that  Congress 
should  be  without  their  councils,  and  myself  without 
their  conversation." 

It  is  rather  tantalizing  that  these  few  lines 
should  be  the  only  record  of  this  memorable 
chatting  over  bread  and  butter,  while  so  much 
more  space  is  immediately  given  to  one  of  those 
Fielding-like  adventures  which  the  gravest 
Congressman  might  then  encounter  on  his 
travels :  — 

"  We  reached  Reading  where  we  put  up  at  one 
Hartman's  near  the  Court  House,  in  the  middle  of  the 
afternoon.  It  was  with  great  difficulty  that  we  could 
get  a  lodging.  We  were  obliged  to  lodge  in  a  room 
with  a  curious  crazy  genius.  We  went  to  bed  about 


74  TRAVELLERS  AND  OUTLAWS 

nine  O'clock;  about  half-past  ten  in  came  the  Genius 
thundering.  He  stamped  across  the  room  several  times, 
and  then  vociferated  for  the  boot- jack.  He  pulled  off 
his  boots,  hummed  over  a  tune,  lighted  up  his  pipe, 
smoked  a  few  whiffs,  took  his  pen  and  ink  and  began  to 
write,  when  there  was  a  keen  rapping  at  our  chamber 
door.  He  turned  his  head  toward  the  door  and  was 
silent.  Immediately  the  door  was  forced  open,  and  such 
a  scene  presented  as  would  have  intimidated  any  person 
of  less  heroism  than  F.  D.  and  W.  E.  In  rushed  a 
Sergeant's  Guard  with  fixed  bayonets  and  arrested  the 
Genius.  All  was  confusion.  There  was  'Damn  your 
blood  Sir,  what  do  you  mean ?  '  'I  arrest  you  sir ;  seize 
his  papers.'  *  Genl  Mifflin' —  'Warrant'  —  'Challenge' 
— '  Let  me  put  on  my  clothes.  I'll  go  with  you  to  Genl 
Mifflin' — 'You  shall  go  to  a  house  twenty  times  as  good 
for  you.  I'll  take  care  of  you.'  After  some  time  we 
found  out  that  our  cracked  Genius  had  challenged  Gen 
Mifflin,  and  therefore  was  arrested.  They  took  him 
away,  but  he  had  not  been  gone  long,  before  he  returned 
to  the  House  cursing  and  swearing,  and  was  locked  up  in 
another  Chamber.  Two  officers  who  were  in  bed  in  that 
chamber  were  obliged  to  decamp  to  make  way  for  him 
and  took  his  bed  in  our  room." 

"The  knight  of  redoubted  valor,  had  at  his  return 
got  up,  dressed  himself,  and  told  the  officer  of  the  Guard, 
that  he  had  put  the  Genius  into  a  passion,  and  that  he 
must  not  be  put  into  our  room  to  disturb  us,  which 


A  CONGRESSMAN  ON  HORSEBACK      75 

occasioned  his  quarters  being  shifted.  The  two  officers 
before  mentioned  told  us  that  the  Genius  when  he  was 
enraged  as  he  then  was,  was  a  ferocious  creature  and 
that  wre  might  expect  that  he  would  attempt  to  recover 
his  old  lodging  before  morning.  —  The  landlady  her 
daughter  and  maids  were  all  roused  and  had  got  up; 
the  landlord  and  Pill-Gaiiick  kept  snug  in  bed ;  all  the 
females  and  the  Knight  were  busily  employed  half  an 
hour  in  putting  the  lock  of  our  door  in  order.  When 
that  was  effected  the  Knight  put  his  pistols  under  his 
head,  his  hanger  in  the  chair  near  the  bed,  and  then 
came  to  bed.  In  the  morning  early  the  Genius  rose, 
strutted  about  his  prison  and  hummed  over  a  tune  in 
seeming  good  humor.  —  After  some  time  he  was  dis 
charged,  came  into  our  room,  asked  our  pardon  for  the 
disturbance  he  had  occasioned  and  offered  us  some  of  his 
loaf  sugar  to  sweeten  our  tea.  He  then  waited  on  Genl 
Mifflin,  returned  and  said  he  was  a  clever  fellow,  but 
swore  damn  him  that  he  would  go  and  kill  the  Officer 
of  the  Guard  if  he  could  find  him.  Out  he  went,  but 
what  became  of  him  I  know  not;  for  we  set  off,  but  I 
believe  he  killed  nobody." 

But  the  journey  of  our  Congressman  is  fast 
drawing  to  a  close,  and  soon  ends  as  follows :  — 

"  Nov.  14th.  —  Crossed  the  Schuylkill  dined  at  Miller's 
near  the   town   of    Ephrata   al  die   [alii  dicunt  =  alias] 


76  TRAVELLERS   AND   OUTLAWS 

Dunkard's  Town  and  lodged  at  Letidz  a  little  Moravian 
Settlement,  where  we  lodged  in  clover.  We  lodged 
in  Cabins  about  3  feet  wide,  a  straw  bed  was  at  the 
bottom,  a  feather  bed  on  that,  sheets,  a  thin  soft  feather 
bed  supplied  the  place  of  blankets,  and  a  neat  calico 
coverlid  covered  all ;  and  our  lodging  room  was  kept 
warm  during  the  night  by  a  neat  earthen  stove  which  in 
form  resembled  a  case  of  Drawers. 

"  Nov.  15th.  —  Crossed  Anderson's  Ferry  which  is  17 
miles  from  Letidz  about  noon,  and  in  the  afternoon 
reached  Yorktown  which  is  10  miles  from  the  Ferry, 
and  so  finished  our  Journey  of  four  hundred  and  fifty 
miles." 

In  June,  1778,  Mr.  Ellery  records  another 
horseback  journey.  Congress  had  left  York- 
town,  and  returned  to  Philadelphia,  just 
evacuated  by  the  British ;  and  this  was  the 
appearance  of  the  country  on  the  way :  — 

"  From  Derby  to  Schuylkill  the  Fencing  was  destroyed 
and  the  fields  lay  entirely  open ;  but  as  the  stock  had 
been  removed  by  the  Owners  or  taken  by  the  enemy, 
the  grass  was  luxuriant.  —  As  I  passed  the  Schuylkill  the 
naked  Chimnies  of  destroyed  houses  on  my  left  expressed 
in  emphatic  language  the  barbarity  of  the  British  officers 
&  Soldiery.  The  city  however  was  in  a  much  better 
state  than  I  expected  to  have  found  it.  At  Chester 


A  CONGRESSMAN  ON  HORSEBACK      77 

heard  the  glorious  news  of  the  defeat  of  Genl  Clinton  at 
Monmouth.  I  lodged  at  Philadelphia  with  my  friend 
William  Redwood  and  continued  in  Philadelphia  until 
the  10th  of  July  when  I  sat  out  for  Dighton  in  company 
with  him.  On  the  glorious  fourth  of  July  I  celebrated 
in  the  city  Tavern  with  my  brother  delegates  of  Congress 
and  a  number  of  other  gentlemen  amounting  in  the 
whole  to  about  80,  the  anniversary  of  Independency." 

His  description  of  this  entertainment  was 
quoted  in  my  "  Larger  History  of  the  United 
States." 

He  went  from  home  to  his  Congressional 
duties  that  same  autumn,  leaving  Dighton, 
Oct.  24,  1778.  The  opening  of  his  diary  on 
this  occasion  shows  amusingly  some  of  the 
inconveniences  to  be  surmounted  before  setting 
off:  — 

"  Sat  out  for  Dighton  on  a  Journey  to  Philadelphia, 
arrived  at  Providence  in  the  afternoon.  The  black  man 
who  had  engaged  to  attend  me  on  the  Journey  fell  sick 
or  pretended  to  be  so.  I  sent  an  express  to  Dighton  for 
a  boy  with  whom  I  had  talked  about  his  going  and 
had  refused  to  take  on  account  of  this  same  black  man. 
The  Boy  was  now  unwilling  to  go.  I  applied  to 
Genl  Sullivan  who  accommodated  me  with  a  Soldier  of 


78  TRAVELLERS   AND   OUTLAWS 

Jackson's  regiment.  The  black  fellow  was  a  married 
man  and  alas  and  lack-a-day  was  under  petticoat  govern 
ment  and  his  sovereign  wanted  to  keep  him  at  home  to 
wait  upon  her.  If  I  had  known  previous  to  my  engaging 
him  that  he  had  been  under  this  kind  of  domination  I 
should  have  consulted  his  Domina  and  procured  her 
consent,  before  I  had  depended  upon  him,  and  not 
suffered  this  sad  disappointment.  Well  —  let  the  ambi 
tious  say  what  they  please,  Women  have  more  to  do  with 
the  government  of  this  world  than  they  are  willing  to 
allow.  Oh  !  Eve  —  Eve ! " 

A  little  farther  on  we  come  to  the  more  sub 
stantial  discomfort  of  a  storm,  putting  a  stop  to 
all  travel,  and  giving  opportunity  for  genial 
philosophizing  by  the  fireside  :  — 

"Oct.  31st. — We  were  at  Emmons'  detained  by  a 
storm  which  has  been  brewing  for  more  than  a  fortnight ; 
but  which,  to  our  comfort,  is  like  the  dram  which  the 
Gentleman  presented  to  the  Revd  Dr.  Phillips  of  Long 
Island,  the  least,  as  he  said,  by  the  dram  that  ever  I  saw 
of  its  age  in  my  life.  This  Mr.  Phillips  had  been  preach 
ing  in  I  know  not  and  care  not  what  Parish,  and  being 
much  fatigued  the  Gent,  with  whom  he  dined,  to  refresh 
his  spirits  before  dinner,  presented  him  with  a  dram  in 
a  very  small  glass,  observing  at  the  same  time  that  the 
dram  was  10  years  old.  The  arch  priest  wittily  professed 


A  CONGRESSMAN  ON  HORSEBACK  79 

that  it  was  the  least  of  its  age  that  he  had  ever  seen  in 
his  life.  — But  as  small  as  the  storm  is,  it  is  large  enough 
to  detain  us.  —  Mrs.  Emmons  our  Landlady,  is  one  of  the 
most  laughing  creatures  that  ever  I  saw.  She  begins 
and  ends  every  thing  she  says,  and  she  talks  as  much  as 
most  females,  with  a  laugh  which  is  in  truth  the  silliest 
laugh  that  ever  I  heard.  —  As  man  hath  been  defined  as 
a  laughing  animal,  as  Laughter  manifests  a  good  disposi 
tion  and  tends  to  make  one  fat,  I  will  not  find  fault  with 
laughing,  let  Solomon  &  Chesterfield  have  said  what  they 
may  have  said  agst  it.  Indeed  the  former  says  there  is  a 
time  to  laugh,  but  with  the  latter  it  is  at  no  time  admissi 
ble.  However,  Chesterfield  when  he  condemns  it  hath 
the  character  of  a  courtier  only  in  Idea,  and  does  not 
regard  common  life.  And  Horace  I  think  says,  Ride  si 
sapis.  —  The  Spectator  hath  divided  laughter  into  several 
species  some  of  which  he  censures  roundly ;  but  doth  not 
as  I  remember  condemn  seasonable,  gentle  laughter.  — 
Therefore  my  pleasant  Landlady,  laugh  on." 

A  little  later  he  finds  another  landlady,  as 
kind  but  less  cheerful ;  and  we  have  a  glimpse 
at  the  standard  of  comfort  then  prevailing  in 
Connecticut :  — 

"  Nov.  1st.  —  Passed  Connecticut  River  and  dined 
at  Chidsey's  on  the  middle  road  on  the  east  skirt  of 
Durham.  Our  Landlady  was  very  kind  and  pleasant. 


80  TRAVELLERS   AND   OUTLAWS 

Her  cheese  and  butter  were  excellent ;  but  alas  !  They 
had  no  Cyder  ;  and  in  consequence  of  it  she  said  with  the 
tone  of  lamentation,  that  they  should  be  quite  lonesome 
this  winter.  The  good  people  of  Connecticut  when  they 
form  the  semicircle  round  the  warm  hearth,  and  the 
Tankard  sparkles  with  Cyder,  are  as  merry  and  as  socia 
ble  as  New  Yorkers  are  when  they  tipple  the  mantling 
Madeira." 

Then  follows  another  graphic  picture  of  a 
wayside  interior :  — 

"  Nov.  5th.  —  Took  the  route  through  Paramus  and 
breakfasted  at  a  Dutchman's  about  7  miles  from  Goes, 
and  were  well  entertained.  A  little  diverting  affair  took 
place  here.  The  Children  who  had  never  before  seen  a 
Gentleman  with  a  wig  on,  were  it  seems  not  a  little 
puzzled  with  my  friend's  head-dress.  They  thought  it 
was  his  natural  hair,  but  it  differed  so  much  from  mine 
and  theirs  in  its  shape  that  they  did  not  know  what  to 
make  of  it.  The  little  boy  after  viewing  it  some  time 
with  a  curious  eye  asked  his  mother,  in  dutch,  whether 
it  would  hurt  my  friend  if  he  should  pull  his  hair.  The 
mother  told  us  what  the  boy  had  said ;  whereupon  my 
friend  took  off  his  wig,  put  it  on  the  head  of  the  boy  and 
led  him  to  the  looking-glass.  The  mixture  of  Joy  and 
Astonishment  in  the  boy's  countenance  on  this  occasion 
diverted  us  not  a  little.  He  would  look  with  astonish- 


A  CONGRESSMAN  ON   HORSEBACK  81 

ment  at  Mr.  Redwood's  bare  head,  and  then  survey  his 
own  head,  and  the  droll  figure  he  made  with  the  wig  on 
made  him  and  us  laugh  very  heartily.  It  is  not  a  little 
remarkable  that  children  who  had  lived  on  a  public  road 
should  have  never  before  seen  a  wig." 

That  night  he  reaches  Elizabethtown,  N.J., 
where  we  have  a  glimpse  at  some  of  the  mild 
relaxations  of  the  Continental  army :  — 

"  We  lodged  at  one  Smiths.  A  Detachment  of  the 
Army,  under  Ld.  Stirling  was  here.  The  officers  had  a 
ball  at  Smiths,  and  kept  up  the  dance  'till  three  o'clock 
in  the  morning.  Drum,  fife  and  fiddle,  with  an  almost 
incessant  saltation  drove  Morpheus  from  my  Pillow." 

"Lord  Stirling"  was  Gen.  William  Alex 
ander,  who  had  been  an  unsuccessful  claimant 
for  the  earldom  of  Stirling.  Later  we  are 
presented  with  some  of  the  joys  of  travel, 
tempered  with  pensive  moralizing:  — 

"  Nov.  9th.  —  We  breakfasted  at  Gilchrists  in  Wood- 
bury.  In  the  way  from  Roxbury  to  Woodbury,  about 
three  or  four  miles  from  the  former,  the  Eye  is  saluted 
with  a  beautiful  Landscape.  The  side  of  a  mountain  in 
a  semicircular  form,  from  its  gentle  declivity  presents  a 
charming  variety  of  fields  and  woods  and  buildings.  In 


82  TRAVELLERS   AND   OUTLAWS 

a  word  it  yields  a  more  beautiful  prospect  than  any  you 
behold  between  it  and  Philadelphia — Gilchrist  furnished 
us  with  the  best  dish  of  Bohea  Tea  and  the  best  toasted 
bread  and  butter  I  have  eaten  for  a  twelvemonth.  But 
this  is  a  chequered  state  of  things,  and  good  alas!  is 
frequently  attended  with  evil.  My  Surtout  .  .  .  ' 

There  seems  to  have  been  some  further 
tragedy  in  respect  to  this  overcoat.  Perhaps 
it  had  followed  the  garment  of  Mr.  Dana's 
servant  into  the  patriotic  army.  The  next  day 
brings  us  close  to  the  enemy's  lines  :  — 

"Nov.  10th.  —Breakfasted  at  Buells  in  Hebron  eight 
miles  from  Hills  —  Dined  at  Jesse  Billings,  my  Tenant 
in  Colchester.  The  Enemy  on  Monday  entered  N.  Haven 
and  pillaged  the  Inhabitants.  They  were  opposed  by 
a  handful  of  men  who  behaved  gallantly.  Of  them 
between  twenty  and  thirty  were  killed,  and  of  the  enemy 
it  is  said  an  equal  number,  and  among  them  was  an 
Adjutant  Campbell.  The  next  day  they  landed  at  Fair- 
field  and  burned  the  Town.  —  How  they  came  to  destroy 
this  town  and  not  New  Haven,  is  matter  of  inquiry. 
They  are  now,  it  is  said,  hovering  about  New  London,  a 
considerable  body  of  militia  is  collected  there,  and  more 
men  are  ordered  in.  Some  Gentlemen  of  Hartford 
seemed  to  be  apprehensive  that  the  enemy  would  pay 
them  a  visit.  I  wish  they  might.  For  I  presume  such  a 


A  CONGRESSMAN   ON   HORSEBACK  83 

body  of  men  would  muster  on  that  occasion  as  would 
effectually  prevent  their  return.  It  is  thought  that  they 
mean  to  draw  off  the  main  army  from  their  present  post, 
and  then  to  attack  West  Point  Fort.  I  rather  think  that 
their  intention  is  to  keep  the  People  in  constant  alarm, 
and  thereby  prevent  their  getting  in  the  Summer  harvest. 
Finding  that  they  cannot  conquer  the  country,  they  are 
determined  agreeably  to  the  Manifesto  of  the  Commrs., 
to  do  as  much  mischief  as  they  can  to  make  our  alliance 
with  France  of  as  little  benefit  to  that  Kingdom  as  pos 
sible.  —  Miserable  Politicians  !  by  their  infernal  conduct 
they  will  destroy  every  spark  of  affection  which  may  still 
remain  in  the  breast  of  Americans,  and  force  us  and  our 
commerce  irrevocably  into  the  Arms  of  France,  which 
have  been  and  still  are  extended  to  receive  both.  Quos 
Deus  vult  perdere  prius  elemental. — We  were  detained  by 
the  rain  at  Mr.  Billings  the  afternoon,  and  lodged  there." 

Yet  amidst  all  these  public  cares  our  worthy 
statesman  found  time  to  notice  not  merely 
mankind  but  womankind,  on  the  way ;  now 
noticing  that  his  landlady  "hath  an  Austrian 
lip,"  and  now  wondering,  as  the  less  ornamental 
sex  was  wont  even  then  to  wonder,  over  the 
freaks  of  fashionable  costume,  —  thus :  — 

"  Nov.  12.  —  Bated  at  Adam's  about  8  miles  from 
Lathrops ;  where  I  saw  a  Girl  whose  head-dress  was  a 


84  TRAVELLERS   AND   OUTLAWS 

fine  Burlesque  on  the  modern  head-dress  of  polite  ladies. 
It  was  of  an  elevated  height  and  curiously  decorated 
with  Holyokes  [hollyhocks].  Lodged  well  at  Dorrances." 

On  the  14th  he  reaches  Dighton,  and  thus 
sums  up  his  journey :  — 

"  Reached  home  at  dinner  time,  18  miles  from  Provi 
dence  and  found  all  well.  This  Journey  for  the  season 
was  exceedingly  pleasant.  The  first  four  days  were  too 
hot  for  comfort ;  but  the  succeeding  six  were  cool,  and 
my  mare  was  as  fresh  when  I  got  home  as  when  I  sat  off. 
The  two  men  who  escorted  me  and  a  sum  of  Money  for 
the  State  behaved  very  well,  and  my  Companion  was 
sociable  and  clever." 

Three  more  of  these  manuscript  diaries  of 
travel,  making  five  in  all,  are  preserved  by  the 
descendants  of  Mr.  Ellery ;  and  I  am  indebted 
for  their  use  to  the  Misses  Ellery  of  New 
port,  R.I.  The  diaries  were  consulted  by  Pro 
fessor  Edward  T.  Channing  when  preparing 
the  memoir  of  his  grandfather,  published 
some  fifty  years  ago,  in  the  sixth  volume  of 
Sparks's  "  American  Biography."  He  gives 
some  extracts  from  them ;  but  these  are  marred 
by  a  peculiarity  of  editing  not  uncommon 


A  CONGRESSMAN   ON   HORSEBACK  85 

among  American  literary  men  of  the  last 
generation,  —  an  exaggerated  sense  of  decorum 
which  induced  the  dignified  Sparks  to  substi 
tute  "  General  Putnam "  for  the  more  familiar 
"Old  Put"  in  Washington's  letter;  and  led 
Professor  Channing  to  strike  out,  from  one 
passage  I  have  quoted,  all  reference  to  Don 
Quixote  and  Pilgarlick,  and  to  offer  the  reader 
a  vague  collation  of  "  beef-steak  and  strong 
drink"  for  the  terser  bill  of  fare,  " Beef-steaks 
and  grogg."  The  theory  of  both  these  excel 
lent  biographers  was,  no  doubt,  that  they 
should  amend  the  deshabille  in  the  style  of 
these  familiar  epistles,  and  put  on  them  a  proper 
walking-dress,  before  sending  them  out  to  take 
the  air,  —  as  the  writers  themselves  would  have 
done,  had  they  foreseen  this  publicity  of  print. 
This  may  often  be  a  good  argument  for  omis 
sion,  but  it  can  never  be  an  argument  for 
alteration ;  and  I  think  writers  of  the  present 
day  have  a  stricter  sense  of  the  literal  signifi 
cance  of  a  quotation-mark. 

It   may  interest   the   reader   to   be   told,   in 
conclusion,  that  William  Ellery  long  outlived 


86  TRAVELLERS   AND  OUTLAWS 

the  fatigues  and  dangers  of  the  Revolution, 
and  passed  an  eminently  peaceful  and  honored 
old  age.  He  left  Congress  in  1785,  and  could 
then  return  to  his  native  town  ;  but  his  house 
was  burned,  his  mercantile  business  was 
destroyed,  the  town  itself  was  almost  ruined, 
and  he  had,  when  almost  at  the  age  of  sixty,  to 
begin  life  anew.  During  the  following  year, 
Congress  appointed  him  commissioner  of  the 
Continental  Loan  Office  for  Rhode  Island;  and 
on  the  adoption  of  the  Federal  Constitution  by 
that  State,  in  1790,  he  became  collector  of 
customs  for  the  Newport  district,  —  an  office 
which  he  retained  until  his  death.  He  lived  to 
see  one  of  his  grandchildren,  William  Ellery 
Channing,  the  most  noted  clergyman  of  Boston; 
another,  Walter  Channing,  the  first  resident 
physician  of  the  Massachusetts  General  Hos 
pital  ;  and  two  others,  Edward  T.  Channing 
and  Richard  H.  Dana,  the  joint  editors  of  the 
North  American  Review,  a  periodical  then 
new-born,  which  Mr.  Ellery  must  have  read 
with  delight.  To  these  his  descendants,  and  to 
all  the  young  people  who  constituted  their 


A   CONGRESSMAN   ON   HORSEBACK  87 

circle,  his  personal  society  is  said  to  have  been 
a  constant  joy.  "  He  was  not  their  teacher," 
says  one  of  them,  "  but  their  elder  companion." 
He  retained  his  intellectual  faculties  unimpaired 
until  the  very  last  hour,  and  died  Feb.  15, 
1820,  at  the  great  age  of  ninety-two.  On  the 
morning  of  his  death  he  rose  and  partly  dressed 
himself,  then  lay  down  from  weakness,  and  the 
physician  found  his  pulse  almost  gone.  Wine 
revived  him,  and  the  doctor  said,  "  Your  pulse 
beats  very  well."  —  "Charmingly!"  said  the 
courageous  old  man ;  after  which  he  lay  for 
some  two  hours  in  silence,  —  saying  once  only 
that  he  knew  he  was  dying,  —  and  then  ceased 
to  breathe. 


A    NEW-ENGLAND  VAGABOND 


rr^HERE  may  usually  be  found  in  the  best- 
regulated  minds  some  concealed  liking  for 
a  vagabond,  the  relic  of  days  when  we  thought 
it  would  be  a  very  pleasant  thing  to  run  away 
with  a  circus  or  to  sleep  under  a  haystack. 
And  even  apart  from  this,  it  is  certain  that  the 
lives  of  vagabonds  often  afford  the  very  best 
historical  material.  We  have  in  copious  profu 
sion  the  letters  and  public  documents  of  the 
able  and  upright  men  who  organized  and 
carried  through  the  great  revolt  of  the  Ameri 
can  Colonies  against  the  Crown  ;  but  many 
events  of  that  epoch  are  still  imperfectly  under 
stood  for  want  of  adequate  memorials  of  the 
scoundrels.  Points  of  the  greatest  historical 
importance,  such  as  the  difficulties  encountered 
by  Washington  in  organizing  the  army  at 
Cambridge,  the  frequent  depletion  of  that  army 


A   NEW-ENGLAND   VAGABOND-  89 

through  desertion,  the  depreciation  of  the  Con 
tinental  currency,  the  startling  outbreak  of 
Shays's  Rebellion,  can  never  be  understood 
except  by  studying  the  revelations  of  the  rep 
robates.  Such  confessions  are  very  rare :  there 
is,  so  far  as  I  know,  but  one  book  which  fully 
and  frankly  proclaims  them  ;  of  that  book  I 
have  seen  but  one  copy,  now  in  possession  of 
the  Worcester,  Mass.,  Public  Library ;  and  this 
condition  of  things  furnishes  ample  reason  for 
bringing  to  light  once  more  the  wholly  disrep 
utable  and  therefore  most  instructive  career  of 
Henry  Tufts. 

He  was  a  man  whose  virtues  might  doubtless 
have  been  very  useful  to  us,  had  he  possessed 
any,  but  whose  great  historical  value  lies, 
strange  as  it  may  seem,  in  his  vices.  His 
dingy  little  book  derives  its  worth  from  the 
very  badness  of  the  society  into  which  it  brings 
us  ;  it  reveals  the  existence,  behind  all  that  was 
decent  and  moral  in  that  period,  of  a  desperate 
and  lawless  minority.  Henry  Tufts  was  born 
at  Newmarket,  N.H.,  June  24,  1748 ;  and  he 
not  only  belonged  to  the  true  race  of  vaga- 


90  TRAVELLERS  AND   OUTLAWS 

bonds,  but  was  indeed  the  first  thorough  and 
unimpeachable  member  of  that  fraternity  re 
corded  amid  our  staid  New-England  society. 
Previous  examples,  such  as  Morton  of  Merry 
Mount,  and  Sir  Christopher  Gardiner,  Knight, 
were  mere  exotics,  the  consummate  flower  of 
an  elder  civilization.  Our  interest  in  them  is 
to  see  how  they  bore  the  transplantation,  and 
how  the  scene  of  transplantation  bore  them. 
But  Henry  Tufts  was  indigenous ;  purely  a 
home  product.  Indeed,  he  belonged  distinctly 
to  what  Dr.  Holmes  once  called  the  Brahmin 
blood  of  New  England ;  for  he  claims  that  his 
grandfather  was  a  clergyman,  who  apparently 
graduated  at  Harvard  College  in  1701.  But  if 
of  clerical  blood,  the  grandson  came  also  of 
the  breed  of  Autolycus,  and  his  autobiography 
belongs  essentially  to  what  has  been  called  the 
"  picaresque  "  literature,  —  that  which  includes 
Gil  Bias,  Guzman  d'Alfarache,  and  Meriton 
Latroon. 

It  is  indeed  unsurpassed  in  that  department, 
for  it  contains  a  smaller  proportion  of  any  thing 
but  vagabondism  than  any  similar  work  known 


A   NEW-ENGLAND   VAGABOND  01 

to  me  ill  any  language.  His  whole  book 
records  hardly  a  trace  of  honest  industry, 
unless  we  include  his  service  in  the  Revolu 
tionary  army;  and  even  there  his  labors  seem 
to  have  been  strictly  in  the  line  of  those  after 
ward  performed  by  Sherman's  bummers.  All 
else  is  unmitigated  but  not  unvaried  rascality. 
In  some  lives,  theft  is  an  incident ;  with  him  it 
was  the  stated  means  of  support.  Whatever  he 
had,  he  stole.  He  can  hardly  be  said  to  have 
invariably  stolen  his  lodgings,  for  he  often  slept 
in  haymows,  and  one  night  in  a  family  tomb ; 
but  for  all  else  —  food,  drink,  and  clothing  —  he 
relied  upon  what  he  graphically  calls  the  rule 
of  thumb.  He  would  have  fulfilled  FalstafFs 
longing,  "Oh  for  a  fine  young  thief!"  It  was 
needless  to  inquire  of  him,  as  Charles  Lamb 
asked  of  his  Australian  correspondents,  what 
he  did  when  he  was  not  stealing.  He  was 
thieving  all  the  time,  unless  we  separate  the 
periods  when  he  was  running  away  with  his 
booty,  or  being  taken  to  prison,  or  breaking  out 
of  it,  which  he  did  again  and  again. 

He  began  his  career  in  the  usual  manner  of 


92  TRAVELLERS  AND   OUTLAWS 

country  boys  who  take  to  bad  courses, — by 
robbing  orchards  and  hen-roosts.  At  fourteen 
he  planned  with  two  companions  to  steal  bread, 
cheese,  and  cucumbers,  and  to  hide  them  in  the 
woods.  The  others  provided  the  bread  and 
cheese,  and  he  the  cucumbers,  stripping  a  whole 
patch.  Being  dissatisfied  with  the  provision 
the  others  had  made,  he  resolved  to  frighten 
them  out  of  their  share  ;  so  he  raised  an  alarm, 
when  they  all  took  fright,  after  which  he  came 
back  and  carried  off  all  the  supplies.  Not 
content  with  this,  he  informed  his  companions 
that  the  farmer  they  had  robbed  had  captured 
him,  and  had  exacted  of  him  three  days'  labor  ; 
so  that  each  of  the  other  boys  gave  him  a  day's 
work  on  his  father's  farm  as  their  share  of  the 
imaginary  penalty.  This  early  incident  gives 
the  key  to  his  whole  life,  which  was  spent  in 
first  defrauding  others  and  then  his  own  accom 
plices.  When  he  was  twenty-one  he  began  the 
more  public  practice  of  his  profession  by  steal 
ing  his  father's  horse  and  selling  it  for  thirty 
dollars. 

In  the  active  pursuit  of  his  vocation  he  trav- 


A  NEW-ENGLAND   VAGABOND  93 

elled  habitually  between  Canada  and  Virginia, 
having  a  line  of  confederates,  like  a  trapper's 
line  of  traps,  through  the  whole  route.  His 
system  of  living  reached  a  singular  perfection. 
When  he  needed  food  he  took  it,  wherever  he 
found  it;  not  confining  himself  to  the  neces 
saries  of  the  table,  but  adding  the  luxuries,  as 
when  he  stole  a  beehive,  and  carried  it  some 
distance ;  on  which  occasion  he  must  have  dis 
counted,  so  to  speak,  the  stings  of  remorse. 
When  he  needed  a  pair  of  boots,  he  looked  out 
for  a  shoemaker's  shop,  and  contrived  to  be 
near  it  at  nightfall.  In  respect  to  linen,  for 
him  the  land  seemed  as  covered  with  clothes 
lines  as  now  with  telegraphic  wires ;  and  once, 
when  he  needed  small-clothes,  he  spied  through 
the  window  of  a  church  a  suitable  pulpit- 
cushion,  stole  it,  sold  the  feathers,  and  made  a 
pair  of  breeches  of  the  green  plush. 

It  is  needless  to  say  that  in  him  horse-stealing 
—  which  has  been  in  all  ages,  as  Scott  says  of 
treason,  "  the  crime  of  a  gentleman  "  —  rose  to 
the  dignity  of  a  fine  art.  Some  fifty  separate 
thefts  of  this  kind  are  recorded  in  his  book. 


94  TRAVELLERS   AND   OUTLAWS 

He  asserts  that  he  could  go  into  a  stable  at 
night,  and  select  a  particular  horse  by  his  way 
of  eating  his  hay.  He  could  so  disguise  an 
animal  by  paint,  that  his  former  owner,  riding 
by  his  side,  did  not  know  him.  He  would  steal 
a  horse,  ride  him  twenty  miles,  and  exchange 
him  for  another,  and  make  two  more  exchanges 
before  reaching  one  of  his  homes  again  ;  for  he 
had  almost  as  many  homes  as  horses.  In  one 
case  he  took  a  neighbor's  horse,  sold  it  for  fifty- 
one  dollars,  and,  on  being  detected,  guided  the 
neighbor  to  the  place  where  it  was  sold,  hoping 
to  find  it  and  steal  it  back  again.  Not  finding 
it,  they  each  stole  another  horse,  were  caught, 
and  were  punished  with  thirty-five  lashes  apiece 
from  a  cat-o '-nine-tails.  In  another  case  a  man 
boasted  that  his  horse  had  a  special  guard  every 
night,  and  could  not  be  stolen.  Tufts  accepted 
the  challenge,  gave  the  guards  rum  and  opium, 
and  rode  the  steed  away.  Nor  was  this  talent 
limited  to  horses.  While  travelling  up  the 
Merrimac  River,  he  stole  a  valuable  dog,  sold  it 
at  Newbury  for  ten  shillings,  and  then  crossed 
the  ferry.  The  dog  swam  the  river,  and 


A  NEW-ENGLAND   VAGABOND  95 

rejoined  him.  Aided  by  this  happy  suggestion, 
Tufts  sold  him  twice  more,  at  Newburyport  for 
six  shillings  and  at  Bradford  for  a  dollar;  the 
dog  each  time  swimming  the  river,  and  rejoin 
ing  his  unwearied  salesman. 

His  whole  life  was  spent  either  in  eluding 
pursuers,  or  giving  them  reason  to  pursue  him 
anew.  He  was  so  constantly  suspected,  that  he 
was  often  arrested  when  he  had  done  nothing. 
The  shop  of  Mr.  Jacob  Sheafe,  in  Portsmouth, 
had  been  robbed ;  and  Tufts  was  stated  to  have 
been  seen  carrying  a  bundle  through  the  streets 
in  the  evening.  That  was  enough ;  and  he  was 
confined  in  Exeter  jail  some  clays,  and  then 
released.  The  same  winter  he  was  arrested 
under  a  similar  suspicion  in  Newmarket,  went 
to  Exeter  jail  again  for  a  week,  and  was  again 
discharged.  For  the  first  of  these  detentions 
he  was  paid  by  Mr.  Sheafe  at  the  rate  of  a 
dollar  per  day.  The  jail  thus  became  not  only 
his  lodging,  his  restaurant,  his  shelter  from  the 
cold,  but  the  source  of  a  moderate  income,  the 
most  innocent  perhaps  that  he  ever  enjoyed. 
The  dollar  a  day  was  a  sort  of  retaining-fee  for 


96  TRAVELLERS   AND   OUTLAWS 

not  thieving.  It  is  observable  that  these  unjust 
detentions  happened  always  in  the  winter,  and 
that  he  never  complained  of  them ;  it  was  only 
when  he  deserved  to  be  in  jail,  that  he  repined 
under  it. 

It  is  said  that  hypocrisy  is  the  homage  that 
vice  renders  to  virtue,  and  that  counterfeit 
money  vindicates  the  true.  It  therefore  throws 
no  discredit  on  two  learned  professions  when 
I  point  out  the  obvious  fact  that  medicine  and 
theology  always  prove  attractive  to  vagabonds. 
Tufts  tried  both.  He  says  of  himself,  in  his 
usual  Micawber  strain,  "  Destitute  of  a  single 
shilling  in  the  world,  it  was  requisite  to  levy 
contributions  on  the  public  [J7  faut  vivre, 
monsieur  f],  so  that  I  might  elude  'haggard 
poverty's  cruel  grasp.'  In  some  places,  there 
fore,  I  practised  physic,  in  others  told  fortunes, 
and  in  others  again  I  discharged  the  sacerdotal 
office.  I  could  turn  my  hand  with  equal 
facility  to  either  of  these  scientific  brandies, 
and  acquired  some  celebrity  in  them  all." 
Accordingly,  like  another  New-England  vaga 
bond,  —  Stephen  Burroughs,  —  Tul'ts  combined 


A  NEW-ENGLAND   VAGABOND  97 

preaching  with  his  other  pursuits.  "  Having  a 
mind  to  view  the  country  and  try  my  skill  as 
a  preacher,  I  purchased  me  a  new  suit  of  black, 
a  large  Scotch-plaid  gown,  and  cocked-up  bea 
ver."  This  was,  therefore,  the  clerical  costume 
in  1777,  and  the  sect  to  which  he  proposed  to 
minister  was  known  as  New  Lights.  It  is  a 
good  instance  of  what  is  called  feminine  intui 
tion,  that  the  only  person  who  ever  found  him 
out  in  this  character  was  a  young  girl.  He 
being  at  Little  Falls,  Me.,  was  invited,  because 
of  this  clerical  dress,  to  speak  at  a  week-day 
meeting ;  and  the  officiating  clergyman  declared 
that  he  had  preached  such  a  sermon  as  to  prove 
him  "  an  incarnate  saint,  if  ever  there  was  one 
upon  the  footstool."  Upon  this,  Tufts  says, 
a  young  woman  named  Peggy  Cotton,  a  church- 
member,  rose  and  said,  u  He  a  saint  ?  So  is 
the  Devil  incarnate.  For  my  own  part,  I  have 
no  belief  in  his  pretended  sanctity,  let  him  pro 
fess  what  he  will."  Being  severely  taken  to 
task,  the  plain-spoken  young  woman  proceeded 
to  explain  that  011  his  first  entrance  into  the 
meeting,  this  gentleman  of  clerical  appearance 


98  TRAVELLERS  AND   OUTLAWS 

had  surveyed  her  from  head  to  foot  in  such 
a  carnal  manner  that  she  "perceived  that  he 
had  the  devil  in  his  heart."  Great  was  the 
confusion ;  the  speaker  was  severely  rebuked 
by  the  officiating  clergyman,  followed  by  Tufts 
himself,  who  says,  "As  two  against  one  are 
odds  at  tennis,  so  poor  Peggy,  finding  her 
ground  untenable  against  both,  presently  with 
drew."  Tufts,  triumphant  against  her,  became 
the  clergyman's  guest,  and  preached  daily 
through  his  whole  tour,  undisturbed  by  the  fear 
of  man  or  woman. 

His  medical  practice  was  really  impaired  by 
the  same  drawback  with  his  preaching ;  for  in 
one  case  a  young  girl  whom  he  had  brought 
back  almost  from  the  grave  fell  in  love  with 
him,  and  insisted  on  his  eloping  with  her, 
which  indeed  required  no  great  persuasion. 
He  had  a  little  more  preparation,  however,  for 
medicine  than  for  theology,  taking  the  latter 
only  by  what  is  now  called  "heredity"  from  his 
grandfather,  while  to  the  former  he  devoted 
three  years  of  exceedingly  irregular  study 
among  the  Indians.  He  was  fond  of  all  ath- 


A  NEW-ENGLAND   VAGABOND  99 

letic  feats,  and,  having  injured  himself  severely 
when  about  twenty-four,  was  advised  by  Capt. 
Josiah  Miles,  "the  great  Indian  fighter,"  to 
visit  the  aborigines  at  "  Sudbury  Canada,"  who 
would  cure  him  if  any  one  could.  Sudbury 
Canada  was  not  a  Canadian  village,  but  one  of 
the  townships  in  Maine  allotted  to  soldiers  who 
had  served  in  an  expedition  against  Canada. 
Thither  he  went,  therefore,  by  way  of  Pig- 
wacket,  in  Maine,  a  region  famous  in  the  Indian 
wars,  this  being  about  fifty  miles  from  the  place 
of  his  stay  among  the  savages.  For  three  years 
(1772-75)  he  remained  with  them,  and  at  first 
was  visited  daily  by  Molly  Orcut,  whose  name 
is  still  preserved  in  memory  as  the  most  noted 
of  Indian  doctresses.  He  observed  her  meth 
ods,  took  her  medicines,  and  received  her 
bounty ;  for  patients  came  to  her  from  far  and 
near,  and  she  always  had  a  considerable  sum 
of  money  in  her  house.  Besides  her  there 
were  other  renowned  doctors,  such  as  "Sabat- 
tus"  and  "Old  Philips;"  and  Tufts  took 
great  pains  to  study  what  he  calls  "Indian 
botany  and  physic,"  and  thus  gained  a  knowl- 


100  TRAVELLERS   AND   OUTLAWS 

edge  of  simples,  on  which  he  frequently  traded 
for  the  rest  of  his  life.  He  added  an  Indian 
wife  to  the  two  or  three  others  whom  he 
had  already  accumulated ;  and  he  has  left  in 
his  autobiography  a  very  clear  and  compact 
account  of  the  whole  way  of  living  among 
these  people  a  hundred  years  ago,  —  their  mode 
of  hunting,  their  habits  in  winter,  their  sleeping 
on  the  snow  before  a  fire,  their  annual  church 
pilgrimages  to  Montreal,  their  torturing  punish 
ment  of  their  own  criminals  by  putting  thongs 
through  the  tendons  of  their  arms  and  legs, 
and  stringing  them  up  between  two  saplings 
to  die. 

On  his  return  from  the  Indian  settlement  he 
found  the  country  plunged  in  a  war,  and  now 
begins  what  is  historically  the  most  valuable 
part  of  his  record.  In  him  we  have  the  reverse 
side  of  the  Revolutionary  soldier  ;  he  shows 
vividly  the  worst  part  of  that  material  out  of 
which  Washington  had  to  make  an  army,  — 
the  two-months'  men.  Tufts  enlisted,  he  tells 
us,  because  he  thought  it  an  easy  life,  and  more 
honorable  than  thieving ;  "  though,"  as  he  justly 


A  NEW-ENGLAND   VAGABOND  101 

remarked,  and  proceeded  to  exemplify,  "  a  sol 
dier  may  be  a  thief."  He  enlisted  first  under 
a  Capt.  Clark,  marched  to  Portsmouth,  N.H., 
worked  at  building  barracks,  serving,  as  he 
tells  us  with  admiration,  "  through  the  whole 
term  of  his  enlistment  without  desertion." 
Here  he  met  Gen.  Sullivan  and  Col.  Cilley. 
Later  he  enlisted  with  one  Capt.  Benbo  for 
two  months,  and  was  marched  to  Winter  Hill 
near  Boston.  "  Here,"  he  says,  "  our  troops 
fared  at  times  so  slenderly  that  we  had  to 
atone  for  the  dearth  of  allowance  by  stealing 
pigs,  poultry,  and  such  articles."  Then  follows 
a  series  of  descriptions  of  thefts  and  cajoleries, 
all  aided  and  abetted  by  the  captain,  who,  if 
any  one  came  to  him  with  a  complaint,  allowed 
his  troops  to  drive  the  complainant  out  of 
camp  with  snowballs.  Then  Tufts  went  home, 
staid  a  while,  and  re-enlisted  for  a  third  term 
of  two  months,  being  first  quartered  at  Winter 
Hill,  then  at  Harvard  College,  and  helping  to 
build  forts  at  Lechmere  Point,  now  East  Cam 
bridge.  The  troops  had  half  allowance  of  food, 
and  had  to  spend  their  pay  to  eke  it  out,  while 


102  TRAVELLERS  AND  OUTLAWS 

Tufts's  peculiar  genius  took  the  form  of  cheat 
ing  the  commissary,  and  getting  a  double  share 
of  pork.  "As  our  wants  had  been  pressing, 
the  officers  of  the  company  were  by  no  means 
offended  at  my  successful  stratagem.  Justly  con 
cluding  that  we  should  want  a  moderate  quan 
tity  of  rum  while  devouring  this  acquisition, 
I  told  them  I  would  undertake  to  provide  this 
desideratum  likewise."  He  accordingly  found 
an  ignorant  man,  took  an  old  summons  for  debt, 

—  of  which  he  doubtless  had  many  about  him, 

—  and  gave  it  to  this  man  as  a  four-dollar  bill, 
telling  him  to  go  to  the  sutler,  buy  rum,  and 
bring  back  the  change.     He  sent  somebody  else 
to  fetch  the  rum  before  the  cheat  was  discov 
ered;  and  says  that  they  "regaled  themselves 
like  lords,"  soldiers,  officers,  and  all,  apparently, 
while  he  "  received  the  applause  of  every  guest 
as  well  for  my  [his]  zeal  as  ingenious  contriv 
ance."     It  was,  no   doubt,  after   dealing   with 
some  such  company  as  this,  that  Washington 
wrote  those  expressions  of  despair,  which  have 
been    so    often    quoted,    about    his   troops   at 
Cambridge. 


A  NEW-ENGLAND   VAGABOND  103 

At  a  later  time  Tufts  was  arrested  by  mistake 
for  a  namesake,  who  had  enlisted  ufor  the 
Ohio"  as  a  soldier,  but  he  was  discharged. 
Then  he  went  on  a  stolen  horse  to  visit  his 
brother,  near  West  Point,  at  a  place  called 
"Soldier's  Fortune."  He  carried  to  his  brother, 
who  was  apparently  a  soldier,  two  shirts,  doubt 
less  from  somebody's  clothes-lines ;  the  brother 
accepted  one  only,  having  already  a  supply,  and 
probably  asking,  like  the  little  boy  who  had 
but  one,  "  Do  you  suppose  a  man  needs  a  thou 
sand  shirts?"  But  the  other  shirt  brought 
Tufts  into  trouble,  as  he  sold  it  to  Sergeant 
Hodgdon  for  seventeen  cartridges  and  a  quarter- 
pound  of  powder.  Buying  or  selling  soldier's 
powder  was  then  a  capital  offence ;  and  he  was 
presently  brought  before  one  Col.  Reid,  who 
had  the  long-roll  beaten,  and  four  companies 
of  foot  paraded  under  arms.  Luckily  every 
man  proved  to  have  his  allowance  of  ammuni 
tion  ;  so  Tufts  was  dismissed.  Then  he  made 
his  way  homeward  among  such  a  variety  of 
French  deserters,  and  other  men  who  were 
hunting  deserters,  and  murderous  Tory  tavern- 


104  TRAVELLERS  AND  OUTLAWS 

keepers,  that  it  all  seems  like  a  chapter  out  of 
Cooper's  "Spy."  Later,  he  enlisted  for  three 
years,  under  Capt.  True,  for  the  regiment  of 
Col.  Crane  at  West  Point,  and  was  four  weeks, 
with  three  hundred  others,  at  the  Castle  in 
Boston  Harbor,  now  Fort  Independence.  Then 
they  went  to  Watertown,  where  he  deserted ; 
then  he  was  captured,  and  sent  to  Exeter  jail, 
his  old  retreat.  He  escaped,  was  again  cap 
tured,  again  escaped,  and  though  closely  fol 
lowed,  —  showing,  as  he  says,  the  great  need  of 
soldiers  in  those  days,  —  he  never  again  rejoined 
the  army.  In  1781,  to  be  sure,  he  was  taken 
as  a  deserter,  and  carried  nearly  to  West  Point ; 
but  the  whole  party  contrived  to  escape,  and 
he  made  his  way  home  on  stolen  horses,  as 
usual. 

It  was  while  he  was  a  deserter  from  the  army, 
in  the  year  1780,  that  an  event  occurred  which 
throws  much  light  from  below,  as  I  may  say, 
on  the  whole  history  of  the  Continental  cur 
rency.  He  had  rambled  from  West  Point  to 
Vermont,  when  the  whim  took  him,  he  says, 
to  visit  "  in  rotation  "  —  a  good  name  for  his 


A   NEW-ENGLAND  VAGABOND  105 

mode  of  life  —  the  town  of  Chaiiemont,  in 
order  to  gain  sight  of  Sally  Judcl,  whom  he 
had  married  when  he  had  another  wife  living. 
He  there  put  up  at  Spencer's  tavern.  A 
stranger  rode  to  the  door,  a  genteel,  well- 
looking  man,  who  dismounted  to  refresh  him 
self,  but  declined  to  stay  longer.  On  being 
pressed  by  Tufts,  who  liked  his  company,  he 
said  that  his  money  was  almost  out,  and  he 
must  be  getting  home.  Tufts,  who  describes 
himself  as  being  always  generous  when  flush 
of  money,  offered  to  pay  the  bill.  So  his  guest 
staid  all  night,  and  they  shared  the  same  room. 
In  the  darkness  of  the  night  the  stranger  made 
a  confession.  His  name  was  Whiting,  "and 
he  had  long  been  an  agent  for  the  British, 
who  had  engaged  him  for  an  emissary  to  ex 
plore  the  country  and  circulate  counterfeit 
money."  "As  Congress  had  issued  a  paper 
medium  to  raise  armies  and  pay  off  their  troops, 
it  imported  their  adversaries  to  discredit  the 
currency  as  much  as  possible.  And  as  such 
large  quantities  of  paper  had  been  issued 
already,  the  speediest  way  to  effect  the  entire 


106  TRAVELLERS   AND   OUTLAWS 

dissolution  of  the  system  was  to  inundate  the 
country  with  counterfeit  bills."  It  accordingly 
proved  that  this  genteel  stranger,  who  had  not 
enough  of  good  money  to  pay  his  landlord,  had 
fifty  thousand  dollars  of  counterfeit  Continental 
money  in  his  pocket,  one  thousand  dollars  of 
which  he  gladly  transferred  to  Tufts  in  ex 
change  for  "a  little  silver  to  discharge  bills  in 
particular  places."  Mr.  Whiting  rode  away 
after  breakfast,  having  had  a  distinction  which 
belonged  to  few  men,  of  teaching  to  Henry 
Tufts  a  wholly  new  line  of  roguery. 

It  is  of  historical  interest  to  know  how  this 
fresh  branch  of  industry  succeeded.  To  all 
appearance,  admirably.  He  says,  "On  the 
same  day  of  my  receiving  the  spurious  bills, 
curiosity  prompted  me  to  make  experiment  of 
their  currency.  On  trial,  I  found  not  the 
slightest  difficulty  in  passing  them.  Indeed, 
my  bills  were  such  an  exact  imitation  of  the 
genuine  ones,  that  a  man  must  have  had  more 
penetration  than  ordinary  to  have  discerned 
the  slightest  difference."  Accordingly,  as  the 
currency  daily  depreciated,  he  made  haste  to 


A   NEW-ENGLAND   VAGABOND  107 

invest  his  hoard  in  something  permanent ; 
u  bought  a  good  horse,  a  new  outfit  of  clothes, 
and  materials  for  a  complete  suit  of  female 
apparel,"  which  last  he  sent  as  a  present  to 
the  yet  unseen  Sally  Judd,  intending  it  as  a 
kind  of  atonement  for  the  damage  her  char 
acter  had  suffered  through  his  acquaintance. 
It  is  interesting  to  knoAV  that  it  brought 
Sally  to  an  immediate  interview,  though  a 
stormy  one,  closing  with  a  further  atonement 
in  the  shape  of  fifty  counterfeit  dollars,  which 
she  accepted,  though  not  relaxing  her  wrath. 
He  then  departed,  and  says,  "I  had  riot 
travelled  many  miles  before  I  had  the  address 
to  traffic  away  my  horse  for  money  and  goods, 
which  articles  I  transported,  like  an  honest 
man,  to  my  own  family."  Even  Henry  Tufts, 
it  seems,  had  his  standard  of  what  constituted 
an  honest  man. 

In  the  spring  of  1793,  Tufts  got  into  serious 
difficulty.  He  bought,  as  he  says,  a  silver 
tablespoon  and  five  teaspoons,  which  turned 
out  to  have  been  stolen ;  for  this  he  was  tried 
for  burglary,  then  a  capital  offence.  The  trial 


108  TRAVELLERS   AND   OUTLAWS 

took  place  in  1793,  James  JSullivan  being 
the  prosecuting  attorney.  Tufts  applied  to  the 
celebrated  Theophilus  Parsons  to  defend  him ; 
but  he  declining,  Messrs.  Sewall  and  Dana 
undertook  the  case ,  —  probably  James  Sewall, 
then  of  Marblehead,  afterward  a  member  of 
Congress,  and  Francis  Dana,  afterward  chief- 
justice,  and  father  of  the  poet.  Twice  the 
jury  disagreed,  and  were  sent  out  again;  but 
they  finally  brought  in  a  verdict  of  guilty,  and 
Tufts  was  sentenced  to  death.  After  several 
attempts  to  escape,  he  resigned  himself  to  his 
fate ;  and  his  cell  at  Ipswich  was  cheered  by 
visits  from  a  man  who  offered  him  seventy 
dollars  for  authority  to  write  his  life,  and 
from  another  who  bid  two  guineas  for  his 
skeleton.  He  was  to  be  hanged  Aug.  13,  1795. 
Great  efforts  were  made  for  his  reprieve,  and 
the  Harvard  students  signed  a  petition  for  it : 
but  it  was  not  till  the  very  hour  of  execution 
had  arrived,  that  the  order  came  from  Gov. 
Samuel  Adams.  Tufts  says,  "  The  people  who 
had  collected  to  the  number  (it  was  said)  of 
three  thousand,  dispersed  in  the  same  manner 


A  NEW-ENGLAND   VAGABOND  109 

as  they  came ;  but,  seeing  their  gathering  had 
been  but  little  gratifying  to  my  feelings,  I  was 
far  from  regretting  their  departure." 

Gov.  Adams  afterwards,  at  the  petition  of 
Tufts's  nominal  wife,  Nabby,  commuted  his 
sentence  to  imprisonment  for  life ;  and  he  was 
sent  to  the  Castle  in  Boston  Harbor,  then  used 
as  a  jail.  There  were  thirty  pieces  of  artillery, 
and  what  he  calls  a  "  company "  of  soldiers. 
There  were  fifty  prisoners,  —  French,  English, 
Dutch,  Spanish,  Irish,  and  American, — giving 
an  impression  of  greater  variety  than  one  would 
have  supposed.  He  was  five  years  in  this 
imprisonment;  and  when  in  1798  (June  23) 
the  Castle  was  turned  over  to  the  United 
States  Government,  he  was  transferred  to  Salem 
jail,  where  the  jailer  apparently  had  no  wish 
to  be  troubled  with  him,  and  remarked,  Tufts 
says,  that  "  the  room  was  in  a  slender  predica 
ment,  wherefore  I  must  behave  peaceably  if  I 
intended  to  stay  long."  He  took  the  hint,  got 
out  within  half  an  hour,  and  walked  away, 
"  musing  upon  the  versatility  of  human  affairs." 
Resolving  to  turn  over  a  new  leaf,  "forswear 


110  TRAVELLERS   AND  OUTLAWS 

sack,  and  live  cleanly,"  lie  debated  for  some 
time  with  which  of  his  wives,  —  the  old  Lydia 
or  the  new  Abigail,  —  he  should  carry  out  these 
virtuous  purposes.  Deciding  on  the  old  one, 
he  followed  her  to  the  State  of  Maine,  whither 
she  had  removed ;  first  writing  a  high-sounding 
letter  to  Abigail,  whose  years  of  fidelity  he 
thus  repaid.  Thenceforward  he  lived  in  Maine, 
"  marching  to  and  fro  in  the  quality  of  an 
Indian  doctor ; "  and  thenceforward  never,  as 
he  declares,  although  tradition  does  not  confirm 
this,  "taking  clandestinely  from  man,  woman, 
or  child,  to  the  value  of  a  single  pin."  This 
did  not,  however,  prevent  his  stealing  from  a 
farmer  his  daughter,  —  who  was  not  worth  the 
proverbial  row  of  pins,  at  any  rate,  by  his 
account,  —  and  wandering  into  the  wilderness 
in  his  old  way ;  but  they  were  captured.  He 
himself  returned  to  the  long-suffering  Lydia, 
and  seems  to  have  passed  his  declining  years  as 
decently  as  his  nature  and  habits  permitted. 
He  died,  it  is  said,  at  Limington,  Me.,  Jan.  31, 
1831,  in  the  eighty-third  year  of  an  uncom 
monly  misspent  life. 


A  NEW-ENGLAND   VAGABOND  111 

"At  length,"  he  says,  in  the  preface  to  his 
book,  —  "at  length  have  my  crimes  and  mis 
demeanors  become  antiquated,  and  the  effects 
of  them  by  lapse  of  time  been  done  away.  I 
no  longer  dread  the  scourge  of  future  punish 
ment,  for  on  me  has  been  exhausted  its  almost 
every  species."  "  The  major  part  of  the  follow 
ing  account  was  digested  from  the  storehouse 
of  memory,  where  long  it  lay  quiescent  in  dor 
mancy."  This  preface  was  dated  at  Limington, 
Me.  (which  he  calls  Lemington),  in  1807  ;  but 
the  book  was  published  at  Dover,  N.H.  The 
titlepage  reads :  "  A  Narrative  of  the  Life, 
Adventures,  Travels,  and  Sufferings  of  Henry 
Tufts,  now  residing  at  Lemington,  in  the  Dis 
trict  of  Maine.  In  substance  as  compiled 
from  his  own  lips.  Ab  ovo  usque  ad  mala. — 
Ovid.  Meliora  video,  proboque,  deteriora  sequor. 
-Idem." 

As  has  been  already  made  obvious,  the  style 
of  the  book,  whoever  wrote  it,  is  to  the  last 
degree  high-flown  and  amusing.  "Now  had 
the  more  vertical  rays  of  propitious  Phoebus 
subdued  the  rigors  of  the  inclement  year,  and 


112  TRAVELLERS  AND   OUTLAWS 

transformed  the  truly  hiemal  blasts  into  pleas 
ing  zephyrous  gales.  Already  had  he  renewed 
the  beauties  of  the  vernal  bloom,  and  restored 
to  the  animate  world  the  festive  joys  of  a  mild 
atmosphere."  As  my  friend  Mr.  Charles  Fran 
cis  Adams  would  no  doubt  remark,  he  who 
wrote  this  had  studied  the  classics.  He  accord 
ingly  speaks  of  Virgil  and  Cicero,  also  of  Milton 
and  Dr.  Cullen  and  Corporal  Trim.  He  has 
peculiar  names  for  places,  —  names  which  have 
a  geographical  interest:  "Number  Four"  for 
Chaiiestown,  N.H.,  and  the  "Lily  Mountains" 
for  the  White  Mountains.  He  has  slang  phrases 
now  vanished:  "hot-foot,  '  "tanquam,"  "troy- 
novant,"  "the  rule  of  thumb ''  for  thieving,  and 
"  to  dance  Sallinger's  round "  for  immoral  in 
dulgences.  He  gives  a  very  interesting  cata 
logue  of  some  seventy  words  in  the  thieves' 
jargon,  or  "flash  language,"  which  is  thus 
shown  to  have  come  to  this  country  in  the 
last  century.  About  half  these  words  re-appear 
in  the  similar  catalogue  of  Capt.  Matsell,  of 
the  New  York  police,  printed  in  1859;  and  one 
phrase,  "  You're  spotted,"  which  Tufts  defines, 


A  NEW-ENGLAND   VAGABOND  113 

"You  are  likely  ,to  be  found  out,"  is  now 
familiar,  but  is  wrongly  stated  by  Bartlett,  in 
his  "Dictionary  of  Americanisms,"  to  be  of 
very  recent  origin.  If  this  singular  book  were 
not  interesting  as  the  record  of  reprehensible 
actions,  it  would  have  a  certain  philological 
value  as  fixing  the  date  of  many  reprehensible 
words. 

I  hope  to  have  made  it  plain  that  it  is  not 
solely  for  the  love  of  bad  company  that  I  have 
rescued  from  oblivion  this  irreclaimable  old 
sinner.  The  historical  value  of  the  book  is 
manifest.  His  whole  picture  exhibits  to  us  at 
a  most  interesting  period  a  wholly  distinct 
and  almost  undescribed  phase  of  New-England 
society.  If  by  a  transformation  scene  the  Con 
tinental  Congress,  with  all  its  members  sitting 
in  tie-wigs,  were  to  vanish  from  view  and  to 
disclose  a  scene  from  the  "Black  Crook,"  the 
change  would  hardly  be  greater  than  to  turn, 
let  us  say,  from  Washington's  correspondence 
to  Henry  Tufts's  autobiography.  The  latter 
discloses  to  us  the  under-world  of  the  Revolu 
tionary  period,  —  a  world  of  sharpers  and  whip- 


114  TRAVELLERS   AND   OUTLAWS 

ping-posts,  of  drunken  tavern-keepers  and  loose 
women.  Tufts  found  an  old  acquaintance, 
always  a  scoundrel,  in  every  piece  of  wo.ods, 
and  obtained  without  the  least  difficulty  a  mis 
tress  in  every  town.  Drunken  Barnaby's  ride 
to  London  hardly  brought  him  into  more  objec 
tionable  companionship.  The  whole  book  is 
like  a  Kirmesse  of  Rubens  or  Teniers,  and 
many  passages  will  not  bear  quotation.  Tufts 
seems  rarely  to  have  been  given  to  liquor,  — 
perhaps  he  found,  like  Bret  Harte's  gamblers, 
that  it  interfered  with  business,  — but  his  taste 
for  all  loose  company  was  inexhaustible ;  and 
after  he  was  fifty  or  more,  and  had,  by  his 
own  account,  utterly  given  up  stealing,  he  was 
still  at  the  mercy  of  every  disreputable  female 
that  came  along ;  and  they  often  came.  Of 
course  it  is  easy  to  say  that  he  lied ;  that 
probability  must  steadily  be  kept  in  view  at 
every  page :  but  the  general  atmosphere  of  a 
book  is  unmistakable,  and  here  the  coarse 
verisimilitude  is  very  great.  No  one  can  read 
these  pages,  and  not  recognize  that  there  must 
have  been  distributed  throughout  a  large  part 


A  NEW-ENGLAND   VAGABOND  115 

of  the  narrow  region  known  as  the  United 
States,  in  those  days,  a  stratum  of  society  like 
that  still  found  in  some  isolated  and  degraded 
settlements  among  the  mountains,  —  hamlets 
whose  wandering  inhabitants  are  habitually 
called  gypsies,  although  without  gypsy  blood. 
Nor  can  it  be  read  without  the  comforting  con 
clusion  that  the  standard  of  morals,  as  well  as 
that  of  education,  has  perceptibly  risen  during 
the  last  hundred  years. 


THE   MAROONS   OF  JAMAICA 


Maroons  !  it  was  a  word  of  peril 
once  ;  and  terror  spread  along  the  skirts 
of  the  blue  mountains  of  Jamaica  when  some 
fresh  foray  of  those  unconquered  guerrillas 
swept  down  upon  the  outlying  plantations, 
startled  the  Assembly  from  its  order,  Gen. 
Williamson  from  his  billiards,  and  Lord  Bal- 
carres  from  his  diplomatic  ease,  —  endangering, 
according  to  the  official  statement,  "  public  cred 
it,"  "  civil  rights,"  and  "  the  prosperity,  if  not 
the  very  existence,  of  the  country,"  until  they 
were  "  persuaded  to  make  peace  "  at  last. 
They  were  the  Circassians  of  the  New  World, 
but  they  were  black,  instead  of  white  ;  and  as 
the  Circassians  refused  to  be  transferred  from 
the  Sultan  to  the  Czar,  so  the  Maroons  re 
fused  to  be  transferred  from  Spanish  domin 
ion  to  English,  and  thus  their  revolt  began. 

116 


THE   MAROONS  OF   JAMAICA  117 

The  difference  is,  that  while  the  white  moun 
taineers  numbered  four  hundred  thousand,  and 
only  defied  Nicholas,  the  black  mountaineers 
numbered  less  than  two  thousand,  and  de 
fied  Cromwell ;  and  while  the  Circassians,  after 
years  of  revolt,  were  at  last  subdued,  the 
Maroons,  on  the  other  hand,  who  rebelled 
in  1655,  were  never  conquered,  but  only  made 
a  compromise  of  allegiance,  and  exist  as  a 
separate  race  to-day. 

When  Admirals  Penn  and  Venables  landed 
in  Jamaica,  in  1655,  there  was  not  a  rem 
nant  left  of  the  sixty  thousand  natives  whom 
the  Spaniards  had  found  there  a  century  and 
a  half  before.  Their  pitiful  tale  is  told  only 
by  those  caves,  still  known  among  the  moun 
tains,  where  thousands  of  human  skeletons 
strew  the  ground.  In  their  place  dwelt  two 
foreign  races,  —  an  effeminate,  ignorant,  in 
dolent  white  community  of  fifteen  hundred, 
with  a  black  slave  population  quite  as  large 
and  infinitely  more  hardy  and  energetic.  The 
Spaniards  were  readily  subdued  by  the  Eng 
lish  :  the  negroes  remained  unsubdued.  The 


118  TRAVELLERS  AND   OUTLAWS 

slaveholders  were  banished  from  the  island  : 
the  slaves  only  exiled  themselves  to  the 
mountains ;  thence  the  English  could  not  dis 
lodge  them,  nor  the  buccaneers  whom  the 
English  employed.  And  when  Jamaica  sub 
sided  into  a  British  colony,  and  peace  was 
made  with  Spain,  and  the  children  of  Crom 
well's  Puritan  soldiers  were  beginning  to  grow 
rich  by  importing  slaves  for  Roman-Catholic 
Spaniards,  the  Maroons  still  held  their  own 
wild  empire  in  the  mountains,  and,  being 
sturdy  heathens  every  one,  practised  Obeah 
rites  in  approved  pagan  fashion. 

The  word  Maroon  is  derived,  according  to 
one  etymology,  from  the  Spanish  word  Mar- 
rano,  a  wild  boar, — these  fugitives  being  all 
boar-hunters ;  according  to  another,  from  Mar- 
ony,  a  river  separating  French  and  Dutch 
Guiana,  where  a  colony  of  them  dwelt  and 
still  dwells ;  and  by  another  still,  from  Oimar- 
ron,  a  word  meaning  untamable,  and  used  alike 
for  apes  and  runaway  slaves.  But  whether 
these  rebel  marauders  were  regarded  as  mon 
keys  or  men,  they  made  themselves  equally 


THE   MAROONS   OF   JAMAICA  119 

formidable.  As  early  as  1663,  the  Governor 
and  Council  of  Jamaica  offered  to  each  Maroon, 
who  should  surrender,  his  freedom  and  twenty 
acres  of  land ;  but  not  one  accepted  the  terms. 
During  forty  years,  forty-four  Acts  of  Assem 
bly  were  passed  in  respect  to  them,  and  at 
least  a  quarter  of  a  million  pounds  sterling 
were  expended  in  the  warfare  against  them. 
In  1733,  the  force  employed  in  this  service 
consisted  of  two  regiments  of  regular  troops, 
and  the  whole  militia  of  the  island;  but  the 
Assembly  said  that  "  the  Maroons  had  within 
a  few  years  greatly  increased,  notwithstand 
ing  all  the  measures  that  had  been  concerted 
for  their  suppression,"  uto  the  great  terror 
of  his  Majesty's  subjects/'  and  "to  the  man 
ifest  weakening  and  preventing  the  further 
increase  of  strength  and  inhabitants  of  the 
island." 

The  special  affair  in  progress,  at  the  time 
of  these  statements,  was  called  Cudjoe's  War. 
Cudjoe  was  a  gentleman  of  extreme  brevity 
and  blackness,  whose  full-length  portrait  can 
hardly  be  said  to  adorn  Dallas's  History  of 


120  TRAVELLERS   AND   OUTLAWS 

the  Maroons ;  but  he  was  as  formidable  a 
guerrilla  as  Marion.  Under  his  leadership, 
the  various  bodies  of  fugitives  were  consol 
idated  into  one  force,  and  thoroughly  or 
ganized.  Cudjoe,  like  Schamyl,  was  religious 
as  well  as  military  head  of  his  people ;  by 
Obeah  influence  he  established  a  thorough 
freemasonry  among  both  slaves  and  insur 
gents  ;  no  party  could  be  sent  forth  by  the 
government,  but  he  knew  it  in  time  to  lay 
an  ambush,  or  descend  with  fire  and  sword 
on  the  region  left  unprotected.  He  was  thus 
always  supplied  with  arms  and  ammunition ; 
and  as  his  men  were  perfect  marksmen,  never 
wasted  a  shot,  and  never  risked  a  battle,  his 
forces  naturally  increased,  while  those  of  his 
opponents  were  decimated.  His  men  were 
never  captured,  and  never  took  a  prisoner ; 
it  was  impossible  to  tell  when  they  were  de 
feated  ,  in  dealing  with  them,  as  Pelissier 
said  of  the  Arabs,  "  peace  was  not  purchased 
by  victory ; "  and  the  only  men  who  could 
obtain  the  slightest  advantage  against  them 
were  the  imported  Mosquito  Indians,  or  the 


THE  MAROONS  OF   JAMAICA  121 

"  Black  Shot,"  a  company  of  Government  ne 
groes.  For  nine  full  years  this  particular 
war  continued  unchecked,  Gen.  Williamson 
ruling  Jamaica  by  day  and  Cudjoe  by  night. 
The  rebels  *  had  every  topographical  advan 
tage,  for  they  held  possession  of  the  "Cock 
pits/'  Those  highlands  are  furrowed  through 
and  through,  as  by  an  earthquake,  with  a  series 
of  gaps  or  ravines,  resembling  the  California 
canons,  or  those  similar  fissures  in  various  parts 
of  the  Atlantic  States,  known  to  local  fame 
either  poetically  as  ice-glens,  or  symbolically 
as  purgatories.  These  Jamaica  chasms  vary 
from  two  hundred  yards  to  a  mile  in  length : 
the  rocky  walls  are  fifty  or  a  hundred  feet  high, 
and  often  absolutely  inaccessible,  while  the 
passes  at  each  end  admit  but  one  man  at  a  time. 
They  are  thickly  wooded,  wherever  trees  can 
grow  ;  water  flows  within  them  ;  and  they  often 
communicate  with  one  another,  forming  a  series 
of  traps  for  an  invading  force.  Tired  and 
thirsty  with  climbing,  the  weary  soldiers  toil 
on,  in  single  file,  without  seeing  or  hearing  an 
enemy,  up  the  steep  and  winding  path  they 


122  TRAVELLERS   AND   OUTLAWS 

traverse  one  "cockpit,"  then  enter  another. 
Suddenly  a  shot  is  fired  from  the  dense  and 
sloping  forest  on  the  right,  then  another  and 
another,  each  dropping  its  man ;  the  startled 
troops  face  hastily  in  that  direction,  when  a 
more  murderous  volley  is  poured  from  the  other 
side :  the  heights  above  flash  with  musketry, 
while  the  precipitous  path  by  which  they  came 
seems  to  close  in  fire  behind  them.  By  the  time 
the  troops  have  formed  in  some  attempt  at  mili 
tary  order,  the  woods  around  them  are  empty, 
and  their  agile  and  noiseless  foes  have  settled 
themselves  into  ambush  again,  farther  up  the 
defile,  ready  for  a  second  attack,  if  needed.  But 
one  is  usually  sufficient ;  disordered,  exhausted, 
bearing  their  wounded  with  them,  the  soldiers 
retreat  in  panic,  if  permitted  to  escape  at  all, 
and  carry  fresh  dismay  to  the  barracks,  the 
plantations,  and  the  Government  House. 

It  is  not  strange,  then,  that  high  military 
authorities,  at  that  period,  should  have  pro 
nounced  the  subjugation  of  the  Maroons  a  thing 
more  difficult  than  to  obtain  a  victory  over  any 
army  in  Europe.  Moreover,  these  people  were 


THE   MAROONS   OF   JAMAICA  123 

fighting  for  their  liberty,  with  which  aim  no 
form  of  warfare  seemed  to  them  unjustifiable  ; 
and  the  description  given  by  Lafayette  of  the 
American  Revolution  was  true  of  this  one,  — 
"  the  grandest  of  causes,  won  by  contests  of 
sentinels  and  outposts."  The  utmost  hope  of  a 
British  officer,  ordered  against  the  Maroons,  was 
to  lay  waste  a  provision-ground,  or  €ut  them  off 
from  water.  But  there  was  little  satisfaction 
in  this :  the  wild-pine  leaves  and  the  grapevine- 
withes  supplied  the  rebels  with  water  ;  and  their 
plantation-grounds  were  the  wild  pineapple  and 
the  plantain-groves,  and  the  forests,  where  the 
wild  boars  harbored,  and  the  ringdoves  were  as 
easily  shot  as  if  they  were  militiamen.  Noth 
ing  but  sheer  weariness  of  fighting  seems  to 
have  brought  about  a  truce  at  last,  and  then  a 
treaty,  between  those  high  contracting  parties, 
Cucljoe  and  Gen.  Williamson. 

But  how  to  execute  a  treaty  between  these 
wild  Children  of  the  Mist  and  respectable 
diplomatic  Englishmen?  To  establish  any 
official  relations  without  the  medium  of  a 
preliminary  bullet,  required  some  ingenuity  of 


124  TRAVELLERS   AND  OUTLAWS 

manoeuvring.  Cudjoe  was  willing,  but  incon 
veniently  cautious:  he  would  not  come  half 
way  to  meet  any  one  ;  nothing  would  content 
him  but  an  interview  in  his  own  chosen  cockpit. 
So  he  selected  one  of  the  most  difficult  passes, 
posting  in  the  forests  a  series  of  outlying 
parties,  to  signal  with  their  horns,  one  by  one, 
the  approacbrof  the  plenipotentiaries,  and  then 
to  retire  on  the  main  body.  Through  this  line 
of  dangerous  sentinels,  therefore,  Col.  Guthrie 
and  his  handful  of  men  bravely  advanced  ;  horn 
after  horn  they  heard  sounded,  but  there  was 
no  other  human  noise  in  the  woods,  and  they 
had  advanced  till  they  saw  the  smoke  of  the 
Maroon  huts  before  they  caught  a  glimpse  of  a 
human  form. 

A  conversation  was  at  last  opened  with  the 
invisible  rebels.  On  their  promise  of  safety, 
Dr.  Russell  advanced  alone  to  treat  with  them  ; 
then  several  Maroons  appeared,  arid  finally 
Cudjoe  himself.  The  formidable  chief  was  not 
highly  military  in  appearance,  being  short,  fat, 
humpbacked,  dressed  in  a  tattered  blue  coat 
without  skirts  or  sleeves,  and  an  old  felt  hat 


THE   MAROONS   OF   JAMAICA  125 

without  a  rim.  But  if  he  had  blazed  with 
regimental  scarlet,  he  could  not  have  been 
treated  with  more  distinguished  consideration ; 
indeed,  in  that  case,  "  the  exchange  of  hats  " 
with  which  Dr.  Russell  finally  volunteered,  in 
Maroon  fashion,  to  ratify  negotiations,  might 
have  been  a  less  severe  test  of  good  fellowship. 
This  fine  stroke  of  diplomacy  had  its  effect, 
however ;  the  rebel  captains  agreed  to  a  formal 
interview  with  Col.  Guthrie  and  Capt.  Sadler, 
and  a  treaty  was  at  last  executed  with  all  due 
solemnity,  under  a  large  cotton-tree  at  the 
entrance  of  Guthrie's  Defile.  This  treaty  rec 
ognized  the  military  rank  of  "Capt.  Cudjoe," 
u  Capt.  Accompong,"  and  the  rest ;  gave  assur 
ance  that  the  Maroons  should  be  "  forever  here 
after  in  a  perfect  state  of  freedom  and  liberty  ;  " 
ceded  to  them  fifteen  hundred  acres  of  land ; 
and  stipulated  only  that  they  should  keep  the 
peace,  should  harbor  no  fugitive  from  justice 
or  from  slavery,  and  should  allow  two  white 
commissioners  to  remain  among  them,  simply 
to  represent  the  British  Government. 

During  the  following  year  a  separate  treaty 


126  TRAVELLERS  AND  OUTLAWS 

0 

was  made  with  another  large  body  of  insur 
gents,  called  the  Windward  Maroons.  This 
was  not  effected,  however,  until  after  an  unsuc 
cessful  military  attempt,  in  which  the  moun 
taineers  gained  a  signal  triumph.  By  artful 
devices,  —  a  few  fires  left  burning  with  old 
women  to  watch  them,  —  a  few  provision- 
grounds  exposed  by  clearing  away  the  bushes, 
—  they  lured  the  troops  far  up  among  the 
mountains,  and  then  surprised  them  by  an 
ambush.  The  militia  all  fled,  and  the  regulars 
took  refuge  under  a  large  cliff  in  a  stream, 
where  they  remained  four  hours  up  to  their 
waists  in  water,  until  finally  they  forded  the 
river,  under  full  fire,  with  terrible  loss.  Three 
months  after  this,  however,  the  Maroons  con 
sented  to  an  amicable  interview,  exchanging 
hostages  first.  The  position  of  the  white 
hostage,  at  least,  was  not  the  most  agreeable ; 
he  complained  that  he  was  beset  by  the  women 
and  children  with  indignant  cries  of  "  Buckra, 
Buckra,"  while  the  little  boys  pointed  their 
fingers  at  him  as  if  stabbing  him,  and  that  with 
evident  relish.  However,  Capt.  Quao,  like 


THE  MAROONS   OF   JAMAICA  127 

Capt.  Cuctjoe,  made  a  treaty  at  last;  and  hats 
were  interchanged,  instead  of  hostages. 

Independence  being  thus  won  and  acknowl 
edged,  there  was  a  suspension  of  hostilities  for 
some  years.  Among  the  wild  mountains  of 
Jamaica,  the  Maroons  dwelt  in  a  savage  free 
dom.  So  healthful  and  beautiful  was  the  situa 
tion  of  their  chief  town,  that  the  English 
Government  has  erected  barracks  there  of  late 
years,  as  being  the  most  salubrious  situation  on 
the  island.  They  breathed  an  air  ten  degrees 
cooler  than  that  inhaled  by  the  white  popula 
tion  below ;  and  they  lived  on  a  daintier  diet, 
so  that  the  English  epicures  used  to  go  up 
among  them  for  good  living.  The  mountain 
eers  caught  the  strange  land-crabs,  plodding  in 
companies  of  millions  their  sidelong  path  from 
mountain  to  ocean,  and  from  ocean  to  mountain 
again.  They  hunted  the  wild  boars,  and  pre 
pared  the  flesh  by  salting  and  smoking  it  in 
layers  of  aromatic  leaves,  the  delicious  "jerked 
hog  "  of  buccaneer  annals.  They  reared  cattle 
and  poultry,  cultivated  corn 'and  yams,  plan 
tains  and  cocoas,  guavas,  and  papaws  and 


128  TRAVELLERS   AND   OUTLAWS 

mameys,  and  avocados,  and  all  luxurious  West- 
Indian  fruits ;  the  very  weeds  of  their  orchards 
had  tropical  luxuriance  in  their  fragrance  and 
in  their  names ;  and  from  the  doors  of  their 
little  thatched  huts  they  looked  across  these 
gardens  of  delight  to  the  magnificent  lowland 
forests,  and  over  those  again  to  the  faint  line  of 
far-off  beach,  the  fainter  ocean-horizon,  and  the 
illimitable  sky. 

They  had  senses  like  those  of  American 
Indians  ;  tracked  each  other  by  the  smell  of  the 
smoke  of  fires  in  the  air,  and  called  to  each 
other  by  horns,  using  a  special  note  to  designate 
each  of  their  comrades,  and  distinguishing  it 
beyond  the  range  of  ordinary  hearing.  They 
spoke  English  diluted  with  Spanish  and  African 
words,  and  practised  Obeah  rites  quite  undi 
luted  with  Christianity.  Of  course  they  asso 
ciated  largely  with  the  slaves,  without  any  very 
precise  regard  to  treaty  stipulations  ;  sometimes 
brought  in  fugitives,  and  sometimes  concealed 
them  ;  left  their  towns  and  settled  on  the  plant 
ers'  lands  when  they  preferred  them  :  but  were 
quite  orderly  and  luxuriously  happy.  During 


THE   MAROONS   OF   JAMAICA  129 

the  formidable  insurrection  of  the  Koromantyn 
slaves,  in  1760,  they  played  a  dubious  part. 
When  left  to  go  on  their  own  way,  they  did 
something  towards  suppressing  it ;  but  when 
placed  under  the  guns  of  the  troops,  and  ordered 
to  fire  on  those  of  their  own  color,  they  threw 
themselves  on  the  ground  without  discharging 
a  shot.  Nevertheless,  they  gradually  came  up 
into  reputable  standing ;  they  grew  more  and 
more  industrious  and  steady;  and  after  they 
had  joined  very  heartily  in  resisting  D'Estaing's 
threatened  invasion  of  the  island  in  1779,  it 
became  the  fashion  to  speak  of  "  our  faitMul 
and  affectionate  Maroons." 

In  1795,  their  position  was  as  follows :  Their 
numbers  had  not  materially  increased,  for  many 
had  strayed  off  and  settled  on  the  outskirts 
of  plantations ;  nor  materially  diminished,  for 
many  runaway  slaves  had  joined  them ;  while 
there  were  also  separate  settlements  of  fugi 
tives,  who  had  maintained  their  freedom  for 
twenty  years.  The  white  superintendents  had 
lived  with  the  Maroons  in  perfect  harmony, 
without  the  slightest  official  authority,  but  with 


130  TRAVELLERS   AND   OUTLAWS 

a  great  deal  of  actual  influence.  But  there 
was  an  "irrepressible  conflict"  behind  all  this 
apparent  peace,  and  the  slightest  occasion  might, 
at  any  moment,  revive  all  the  old  terror.  That 
occasion  was  close  at  hand. 

Capt.  Cudjoe  and  Capt.  Accompong,  and  the 
other  founders  of  Maroon  independence,  had 
passed  away ;  and  "  Old  Montagu  "  reigned  in 
their  stead,  in  Trelawney  Town.  Old  Montagu 
had  all  the  pomp  and  circumstance  of  Maroon 
majesty:  he  wore  a  laced  red  coat,  and  a  hat 
superb  with  gold  lace  and  plumes ;  none  but 
captains  could  sit  in  his  presence ;  he  was 
helped  first  at  meals,  and  no  woman  could  eat 
beside  him ;  he  presided  at  councils  as  magnifi 
cently  as  at  table,  though  with  less  appetite ; 
and  possessed,  meanwhile,  not  an  atom  of  the 
love  or  reverence  of  any  human  being.  The 
real  power  lay  entirely  with  Major  James, 
the  white  superintendent,  who  had  been  brought 
up  among  the  Maroons  by  his  father  (and  pre 
decessor),  and  who  was  the  idol  of  this  wild 
race.  In  an  evil  hour,  the  Government  removed 
him,  and  put  a  certain  unpopular  Capt.  Craskell 


THE   MAROONS   OF   JAMAICA  131 

in  his  place ;  and  as  there  happened  to  be, 
about  the  same  time,  a  great  excitement  con 
cerning  a  hopeful  pair  of  young  Maroons,  who 
had  been  seized  arid  publicly  whipped  on  a 
charge  of  hog-stealing,  their  kindred  refused  to 
allow  the  new  superintendent  to  remain  in  the 
town.  A  few  attempts  at  negotiation  only 
brought  them  to  a  higher  pitch  of  wrath,  which 
ended  in  their  despatching  the  following 
peculiar  diplomatic  note  to  the  Earl  of  Bal- 
carres:  "The  Maroons  wishes  nothing  else 
from  the  country  but  battle,  and  they  desires 
not  to  see  Mr.  Craskell  up  here  at  all.  So  they 
are  waiting  every  moment  for  the  above  on 
Monday.  Mr.  David  Schaw  will  see  you  on 
Sunday  morning  for  an  answer.  They  will  wait 
till  Monday,  nine  o'clock,  and  if  they  don't 
come  up,  they  will  come  down  themselves." 
Signed,  "  Col.  Montagu  and  all  the  rest." 

It  turned  out,  at  last,  that  only  two  or  three 
of  the  Maroons  were  concerned  in  this  remark 
able  defiance  ;  but  meanwhile  it  had  its  effect. 
Several  ambassadors  were  sent  among  the  in 
surgents,  and  were  so  favorably  impressed  by 


132  TRAVELLERS  AND  OUTLAWS 

their  reception  as  to  make  up  a  subscription 
of  money  for  their  hosts,  on  departing ;  only 
the  "  gallant  Col.  Gallimore,"  a  Jamaica  Camil- 
lus,  gave  iron  instead  of  gold,  by  throwing 
some  bullets  into  the  contribution-box.  And  it 
was  probably  in  accordance  with  his  view  of 
the  subject,  that,  when  the  Maroons  sent 
ambassadors  in  return,  they  were  at  once 
imprisoned,  most  injudiciously  and  unjustly ; 
and  when  Old  Montagu  himself  and  thirty-seven 
others,  following,  were  seized  and  imprisoned 
also,  it  is  not  strange  that  the  Maroons,  joined 
by  many  slaves,  were  soon  in  open  insurrection. 
Martial  law  was  instantly  proclaimed  through 
out  the  island.  The  fighting  men  among  the 
insurgents  were  not,  perhaps,  more  than  five 
hundred ;  against  whom  the  Government  could 
bring  nearly  fifteen  hundred  regular  troops  and 
several  thousand  militiamen.  Lord  Balcarres 
himself  took  the  command,  and,  eager  to  crush 
the  affair,  promptly  marched  a  large  force  up 
to  Trelawney  Town,  and  was  glad  to  march 
back  again  as  expeditiously  as  possible.  In 
his  very  first  attack,  he  was  miserably  defeated, 


THE  MAROONS  OF   JAMAICA  133 

and  had  to  fly  for  his  life,  amid  a  perfect 
panic  of  the  troops,  in  which  some  forty  or 
fifty  were  killed,  —  including  Col.  Sandford, 
commanding  the  regulars,  and  the  bullet-loving 
Col.  Gallimore,  in  command  of  the  militia,  — 
while  not  a  single  Maroon  was  even  wounded, 
so  far  as  could  be  ascertained. 

After  this  a  good  deal  of  bush-fighting  took 
place.  The  troops  gradually  got  possession  of 
several  Maroon  villages,  but  not  till  every  hut 
had  been  burnt  by  its  owner.  It  was  in  the 
height  of  the  rainy  season ;  and,  between  fire 
and  water,  the  discomfort  of  the  soldiers  was 
enormous.  Meanwhile  the  Maroons  hovered 
close  around  them  in  the  woods,  heard  all  their 
orders,  picked  off  their  sentinels,  and,  penetrat 
ing  through  their  lines  at  night,  burned  houses 
and  destroyed  plantations  far  below.  The  only 
man  who  could  cope  with  their  peculiar  tactics 
was  Major  James,  the  superintendent  just 
removed  by  Government ;  and  his  services 
were  not  employed,  as  he  was  not  trusted.  On 
one  occasion,  however,  he  led  a  volunteer  party 
farther  into  the  mountains  than  any  of  the 


134  TRAVELLERS  AND  OUTLAWS 

assailants  had  yet  penetrated,  guided  by  tracks 
known  to  himself  only,  and  by  the  smell  of  the 
smoke  of  Maroon  fires.  After  a  very  exhaust 
ing  march,  including  a  climb  of  a  hundred  and 
fifty  feet  up  the  face  of  a  precipice,  he  brought 
them  just  within  the  entrance  of  Guthrie's 
Defile.  "So  far,"  said  he,  pointing  to  the 
entrance,  "  you  may  pursue,  but  no  farther ; 
no  force  can  enter  here ;  no  white  man  except 
myself,  or  some  soldier  of  the  Maroon  establish 
ment,  has  ever  gone  beyond  this.  With  the 
greatest  difficulty  I  have  penetrated  four  miles 
farther,  and  not  ten  Maroons  have  gone  so  far 
as  that.  There  are  two  other  ways  of  getting 
into  the  defile,  practicable  for  the  Maroons,  but 
not  for  any  one  of  you.  In  neither  of  them  can 
I  ascend  or  descend  with  my  arms,  which  must 
be  handed  to  me,  step  by  step,  as  practised  by 
the  Maroons  themselves.  One  of  the  ways  lies 
to  the  eastward,  and  the  other  to  the  westward ; 
and  they  will  take  care  to  have  both  guarded, 
if  they  suspect  that  I  am  with  you ;  which, 
from  the  route  you  have  come  to-day,  they  will. 
They  now  see  you,  and  if  you  advance  fifty 


THE   MAROONS   OF   JAMAICA  135 

paces  more,  they  will  convince  you  of  it."  At 
this  moment  a  Maroon  horn  sounded  the  notes 
indicating  his  name ;  and,  as  he  made  no  answer, 
a  voice  was  heard,  inquiring  if  he  were  among 
them.  "  If  he  is,"  said  the  voice,  "  let  him  go 
back,  we  do  not  wish  to  hurt  him ,  but  as  for 
the  rest  of  you,  come  on  and  try  battle  if  you 
choose."  But  the  gentlemen  did  not  choose. 

In  September  the  House  of  Assembly  met. 
Things  were  looking  worse  and  worse.  For 
five  months  a  handful  of  negroes  and  mulattoes 
had  defied  the  whole  force  of  the  island,  and 
they  were  defending  their  liberty  by  precisely 
the  same  tactics  through  which  their  ancestors 
had  won  it.  Half  a  million  pounds  sterling  had 
been  spent  within  this  time,  besides  the  enor 
mous  loss  incurred  by  the  withdrawal  of  so 
many  able-bodied  men  from  their  regular  em 
ployments.  "  Cultivation  was  suspended,"  says 
an  eye-witness;  "the  courts  of  law  had  long 
been  shut  up ;  and  the  island  at  large  seemed 
more  like  a  garrison  under  the  power  of  law- 
martial,  than  a  country  of  agriculture  and 
commerce,  of  civil  judicature,  industry,  and 


136  TRAVELLERS   AND    OUTLAWS 

prosperity."  Hundreds  of  the  militia  had  died 
of  fatigue,  large  numbers  had  been  shot  down, 
the  most  daring  of  the  British  officers  had 
fallen  ;  while  the  insurgents  had  been  invariably 
successful,  and  not  one  of  them  was  known  to 
have  been  killed.  Capt.  Craskell,  the  banished 
superintendent,  gave  it  to  the  Assembly  as  his 
opinion,  that  the  whole  slave  population  of  the 
island  was  in  sympathy  with  the  Maroons,  and 
would  soon  be  beyond  control.  More  alarming 
still,  there  were  rumors  of  French  emissaries 
behind  the  scenes;  and  though  these  were 
explained  away,  the  vague  terror  remained. 
Indeed,  the  lieutenant-governor  announced  in 
his  message  that  he  had  satisfactory  evidence 
that  the  French  Convention  was  concerned  in 
the  revolt.  A  French  prisoner,  named  Muren- 
son,  had  testified  that  the  French  agent  at 
Philadelphia  (Fauchet)  had  secretly  sent  a 
hundred  and  fifty  emissaries  to  the  island,  and 
threatened  to  land  fifteen  hundred  negroes. 
And  though  Murenson  took  it  all  back  at  last, 
yet  the  Assembly  was  moved  to  make  a  new 
offer  of  three  hundred  dollars  for  killing  or 


THE   MAROONS  OF  JAMAICA  137 

taking  a  Trelawney  Maroon,  and  a  hundred 
and  fifty  dollars  for  killing  or  taking  any  fugi 
tive  slave  who  had  joined  them.  They  also 
voted  five  hundred  pounds  as  a  gratuity  to  the 
Accompong  tribe  of  Maroons,  who  had  thus  far 
kept  out  of  the  insurrection ;  and  various 
prizes  and  gratuities  were  also  offered  by  the 
different  parishes,  with  the  same  object  of  self- 
protection. 

The  commander-in-chief  being  among  the 
killed,  Col.  Walpole  was  promoted  in  his 
stead,  and  brevetted  as  general,  by  way  of 
incentive.  He  found  a  people  in  despair,  a 
soldiery  thoroughly  intimidated,  and  a  treas 
ury  not  empty,  but  useless.  But  the  new 
general  had  not  served  against  the  Maroons 
for  nothing,  and  was  not  ashamed  to  go  to 
school  to  his  opponents.  First,  he  waited  for 
the  dry  season ;  then  he  directed  all  his  efforts 
towards  cutting  off  his  opponents  from  water; 
and,  most  effectual  move  of  all,  he  attacked 
each  successive  cockpit  by  dragging  up  a  how 
itzer,  with  immense  labor,  and  throwing  in 
shells.  Shells  were  a  visitation  not  dreamed 


138  TRAVELLERS   AND   OUTLAWS 

of  in  Maroon  philosophy,  and  their  quaint  com 
pliments  to  their  new  opponent  remain  on 
record.  "  Damn  dat  little  buckra  !  "  they  said  , 
"he  cunning  more  dan  dem  tocler.  Dis  here 
da  new  fashion  for  fight :  him  fire  big  ball 
arter  you,  and  when  big  ball  'top,  de  damn 
sunting  [something]  fire  arter  you  again." 
With  which  Parthian  arrows  of  rhetoric  the 
mountaineers  retreated. 

But  this  did  not  last  long.  The  Maroons 
soon  learned  to  keep  out  of  the  way  of  the 
shells,  and  the  island  relapsed  into  terror 
again.  It  was  deliberately  resolved  at  last,  by 
a  special  council  convoked  for  the  purpose, 
"  to  persuade  the  rebels  to  make  peace."  But 
as  they  had  not  as  yet  shown  themselves  very 
accessible  to  softer  influences,  it  was  thought 
best  to  combine  as  many  arguments  as  possible, 
and  a  certain  Col.  Quarrell  had  hit  upon  a 
wholly  new  one.  His  plan  simply  was,  since 
men,  however  well  disciplined,  had  proved 
powerless  against  Maroons,  to  try  a  Spanish 
fashion  against  them,  and  use  dogs.  The 
proposition  was  met,  in  some  quarters,  with 


THE   MAROONS   OF   JAMAICA  139 

the  strongest  hostility.  England,  it  was  said, 
had  always  denounced  the  Spaniards  as  brutal 
and  dastardly  for  hunting  down  the  natives 
of  that  very  soil  with  hounds ;  and  should 
England  now  follow  the  humiliating  example? 
On  the  other  side,  there  were  plenty  who 
eagerly  quoted  all  known  instances  of  zoologi 
cal  warfare :  all  Oriental  nations,  for  instance, 
used  elephants  in  war,  and,  no  doubt,  would 
gladly  use  lions  and  tigers  also,  but  for  their 
extreme  carnivorousness,  and  their  painful 
indifference  to  the  distinction  between  friend 
and  foe ;  why  not,  then,  use  these  dogs, 
comparatively  innocent  and  gentle  creatures  ? 
At  any  rate,  "  something  must  be  done  ; "  the 
final  argument  always  used,  when  a  bad  or 
desperate  project  is  to  be  made  palatable.  So 
it  was  voted  at  last  to  send  to  Havana  for  an 
invoice  of  Spanish  dogs,  with  their  accompany 
ing  chasseurs;  and  the  efforts  at  persuading 
the  Maroons  were  postponed  till  the  arrival  of 
these  additional  persuasives.  And  when  Col. 
Quarrell  finally  set  sail  as  commissioner  to 
obtain  the  new  allies,  all  scruples  of  conscience 


140  TRAVELLERS  AND   OUTLAWS 

vanished  in  the  renewal  of  public  courage  and 
the  chorus  of  popular  gratitude  ;  a  thing  so 
desirable  must  be  right ;  thrice  the}'  were 
armed  who  knew  their  Quarrell  just. 

But  after  the  parting  notes  of  gratitude  died 
away  in  the  distance,  the  commissioner  began 
to  discover  that  he  was  to  have  a  hard  time 
of  it.  He  sailed  for  Havana  in  a  schooner 
manned  with  Spanish  renegadoes,  who  insisted 
on  fighting  every  thing  that  came  in  their 
way,  —  first  a  Spanish  schooner,  then  a  French 
one.  He  landed  at  Batabano,  struck  across 
the  mountains  towards  Havana,  stopped  at 
Besucal  to  call  on  the  wealthy  Marquesa  de 
San  Felipe  y  San  Jorge,  grand  patroness  of 
dogs  and  chasseurs,  and  finally  was  welcomed 
to  Havana  by  Don  Luis  de  las  Casas,  who  over 
looked,  for  this  occasion  only,  an  injunction 
of  his  court  against  admitting  foreigners  within 
his  government ;  "  the  only  accustomed  excep 
tion  being,"  as  Don  Luis  courteously  assured 
him,  "  in  favor  of  foreign  traders  who  came 
with  new  negroes."  To  be  sure,  the  commis 
sioner  had  not  brought  any  of  these  commodi- 


THE  MAROONS   OF  JAMAICA  141 

ties;  but  then  he  had  come  to  obtain  the 
means  of  capturing  some,  and  so  might  pass 
for  an  irregular  practitioner  of  the  privileged 
profession. 

Accordingly,  Don  Guillermo  Dawes  Quarrell 
(so  ran  his  passport)  found  no  difficulty  in 
obtaining  permission  from  the  governor  to  buy 
as  many  dogs  as  he  desired.  When,  however, 
he  carelessly  hinted  at  the  necessity  of  taking, 
also,  a  few  men  who  should  have  care  of  the 
dogs,  —  this  being,  after  all,  the  essential  part 
of  his  expedition,  —  Don  Luis  de  las  Casas  put 
on  instantly  a  double  force  of  courtesy,  and 
assured  him  of  the  entire  impossibility  of 
recruiting  a  single  Spaniard  for  English 
service.  Finally,  however,  he  gave  permission 
and  passports  for  six  chasseurs.  Under  cover 
of  this,  the  commissioner  lost  no  time  in 
enlisting  forty  ;  he  got  them  safe  to  Batabano  ; 
but  at  the  last  moment,  learning  the  state  of 
affairs,  they  refused  to  embark  on  such  very 
irregular  authority.  When  he  had  persuaded 
them,  at  length,  the  officer  of  the  fort  inter 
posed  objections.  This  was  riot  to  be  borne, 


142  TRAVELLERS  AND   OUTLAWS 

so  Don  Guillermo  bribed  him  and  silenced 
him ;  a  dragoon  was,  however,  sent  to  report 
to  the  governor ;  Don  Guillermo  sent  a  mes 
senger  after  him,  and  bribed  him  too  ;  and 
thus  at  length,  after  myriad  rebuffs,  and  after 
being  obliged  to  spend  the  last  evening  at  a 
puppet-show  in  which  the  principal  figure  was 
a  burlesque  on  his  own  personal  peculiarities, 
the  weary  Don  Guillermo,  with  his  crew  of 
renegadoes,  and  his  forty  chasseurs  and  their 
one  hundred  and  four  muzzled  dogs,  set  sail  for 
Jamaica. 

These  new  allies  were  certainly  something 
formidable,  if  we  may  trust  the  pictures  and 
descriptions  in  Dallas's  History.  The  chas 
seur  was  a  tall,  meagre,  swarthy  Spaniard 
or  mulatto,  lightly  clad  in  cotton  shirt  and 
drawers,  with  broad  straw  hat,  and  moccasins 
of  raw  -  hide  ;  his  belt  sustaining  his  long, 
straight,  flat  sword  or  machete,  like  an  iron 
bar  sharpened  at  one  end ;  and  he  wore  by  the 
same  belt  three  cotton  leashes  for  his  three 
dogs,  sometimes  held  also  by  chains.  The  dogs 
were  a  fierce  breed,  crossed  between  hound 


THE   MAROONS   OF  JAMAICA  143 

and  mastiff,  never  unmuzzled  but  for  attack, 
and  accompanied  by  smaller  dogs  called  finders. 
It  is  no  wonder,  when  these  wild  and  powerful 
creatures  were  landed  at  Montego  Bay,  that 
terror  ran  through  the  town,  doors  were  every 
where  closed,  and  windows  crowded;  not  a 
negro  dared  to  stir;  and  the  muzzled  dogs, 
infuriated  by  confinement  on  shipboard,  filled 
the  silent  streets  with  their  noisy  barking  and 
the  rattling  of  their  chains. 

How  much  would  have  come  of  all  this  in 
actual  conflict,  does  not  appear.  The  Maroons 
had  already  been  persuaded  to  make  peace 
upon  certain  conditions  and  guaranties,  —  a 
decision  probably  accelerated  by  the  terrible 
rumors  of  the  bloodhounds,  though  they  never 
saw  them.  It  was  the  declared  opinion  of 
the  Assembly,  confirmed  by  that  of  Gen. 
Walpole,  that  "nothing  could  be  clearer  than 
that,  if  they  had  been  off  the  island,  the  rebels 
could  not  have  been  induced  to  surrender." 
Nevertheless,  a  treaty  was  at  last  made,  without 
the  direct  intervention  of  the  quadrupeds. 
Again  commissioners  went  up  among  the 


144       TRAVELLERS  AND  OUTLAWS 

mountains  to  treat  with  negotiators  at  first 
invisible ;  again  were  hats  and  jackets  inter 
changed,  not  without  coy  reluctance  on  the 
part  of  the  well-dressed  Englishmen ;  and  a 
solemn  agreement  was  effected.  The  most 
essential  part  of  the  bargain  was  a  guaranty 
of  continued  independence,  demanded  by  the 
suspicious  Maroons.  Gen.  Walpole,  however, 
promptly  pledged  himself  that  no  such  unfair 
advantage  should  be  taken  of  them  as  had 
occurred  with  the  hostages  previously  surren 
dered,  who  were  placed  in  irons;  nor  should 
any  attempt  be  made  to  remove  them  from  the 
island.  It  is  painful  to  add,  that  this  promise 
was  outrageously  violated  by  the  Colonial  Gov 
ernment,  to  the  lasting  grief  of  Gen.  Walpole, 
on  the  ground  that  the  Maroons  had  violated 
the  treaty  by  a  slight  want  of  punctuality  in 
complying  with  its  terms,  and  by  remissness 
in  restoring  the  fugitive  slaves  who  had  taken 
refuge  among  them.  As  many  of  the  tribe 
as  surrendered,  therefore,  were  at  once  placed 
in  confinement,  and  ultimately  shipped  from 
Port  Royal  to  Halifax,  to  the  number  of  six 


THE   MAROONS  OF  JAMAICA  145 

hundred,  on  the  6th  of  June,  1796.  For  the 
credit  of  English  honor,  we  rejoice  to  know 
that  Gen.  Walpole  not  merely  protested  against 
this  utter  breach  of  faith,  but  indignantly 
declined  the  sword  of  honor  which  the  Assem 
bly  had  voted  him,  in  its  gratitude,  and  then 
retired  from  military  service  forever. 

The  remaining  career  of  this  portion  of  the 
Maroons  is  easily  told.  They  were  first 
dreaded  by  the  inhabitants  of  Halifax,  then 
welcomed  when  seen,  and  promptly  set  to 
work  on  the  citadel,  then  in  process  of  recon 
struction,  where  the  "  Maroon  Bastion ''  still 
remains,  —  their  only  visible  memorial.  Two 
commissioners  had  charge  of  them,  one  being 
the  redoubtable  Col.  Quarrell ;  and  twenty-five 
thousand  pounds  were  appropriated  for  their 
temporary  support.  Of  course  they  did  not 
prosper ;  pensioned  colonists  never  do,  for  they 
are  not  compelled  into  habits  of  industry. 
After  their  delicious  life  in  the  mountains  of 
Jamaica,  it  seemed  rather  monotonous  to  dwell 
upon  that  barren  soil,  —  for  theirs  was  such 
that  two  previous  colonies  had  deserted  it,  — 


146       TRAVELLERS  AND  OUTLAWS 

and  in  a  climate  where  winter  lasts  seven 
months  in  the  year. .  They  had  a  schoolmaster, 
and  he  was  also  a  preacher ;  but  they  did  not 
seem  to  appreciate  that  luxury  of  civilization, 
utterly  refusing,  on  grounds  of  conscience,  to 
forsake  polygamy,  and,  on  grounds  of  personal 
comfort,  to  listen  to  the  doctrinal  discourses  of 
their  pastor,  who  was  an  ardent  Sandemanian. 
They  smoked  their  pipes  during  service  time, 
and  left  Old  Montagu,  who  still  survived,  to 
lend  a  vicarious  attention  to  the  sermon.  One 
discourse  he  briefly  reported  as  follows,  very 
much  to  the  point :  "  Massa  parson  say  no  mus 
tief,  no  mus  meddle  wid  somebody  wife,  no 
mus  quarrel,  mus  set  down  softly."  So  they 
sat  down  very  softly,  and  showed  an  extreme 
unwillingness  to  get  up  again.  But,  not  being 
naturally  an  idle  race,  —  at  least,  in  Jamaica  the 
objection  lay  rather  on  the  other  side, — they 
soon  grew  tired  of  this  inaction.  Distrustful  of 
those  about  them,  suspicious  of  all  attempts 
to  scatter  them  among  the  community  at  large, 
frozen  by  the  climate,  and  constantly  petition 
ing  for  removal  to  a  milder  one,  they  finally 


THE   MAROONS  OF  JAMAICA  147 

wearied  out  all  patience.  A  long  dispute 
ensued  between  the  authorities  of  Nova  Scotia 
and  Jamaica,  as  to  which  was  properly  respon 
sible  for  their  support;  and  thus  the  heroic 
race,  that  for  a  century  and  a  half  had  sus 
tained  themselves  in  freedom  in  Jamaica,  were 
reduced  to  the  position  of  troublesome  and 
impracticable  paupers,  "shuttlecocks  between 
two  selfish  parishes.  So  passed  their  unfortu 
nate  lives,  until,  in  1800,  their  reduced  popu 
lation  was  transported  to  Sierra  Leone,  at  a 
cost  of  six  thousand  pounds ;  since  which  they 
disappear  from  history. 

It  was  judged  best  not  to  interfere  with 
those  bodies  of  Maroons  which  had  kept  aloof 
from  the  late  outbreak,  at  the  Accompong 
settlement,  and  elsewhere.  They  continued  to 
preserve  a  qualified  independence,  and  retain 
it  even  now.  In  1835,  two  years  after  the 
abolition  of  slavery  in  Jamaica,  there  were 
reported  sixty  families  of  Maroons  as  residing 
at  Accompong  Town,  eighty  families  at  Moore 
Town,  one  hundred  and  ten  families  at  Charles 
Town,  and  twenty  families  at  Scott  Hall, 


148  TRAVELLERS   AND   OUTLAWS 

making  two  hundred  and  seventy  families  in 
all,  —  each  station  being,  as  of  old,  under  the 
charge  of  a  superintendent.  But  there  can 
be  little  doubt,  that,  under  the  influences  of 
freedom,  they  are  rapidly  intermingling  with 
the  mass  of  colored  population  in  Jamaica. 

The  story  of  the  exiled  Maroons  attracted 
attention  in  high  quarters,  in  its  time :  the 
wrongs  done  to  them  were  denounced  in 
Parliament  by  Sheridan,  and  mourned  by 
Wilberforce ;  while  the  employment  of  blood 
hounds  against  them  was  vindicated  by  Dundas, 
and  the  whole  conduct  of  the  Colonial  Govern 
ment  defended,  through  thick  and  thin,  by 
Bryan  Edwards.  This  thorough  partisan  even 
had  the  assurance  to  tell  Mr.  Wilberforce,  in 
Parliament,  that  he  knew  the  Maroons,  from 
personal  knowledge,  to  be  cannibals,  and  that, 
if  a  missionary  were  sent  among  them  in  Nova 
Scotia,  they  would  immediately  eat  him ;  •  a 
charge  so  absurd  that  he  did  not  venture  to 
repeat  it  in  his  History  of  the  West  Indies, 
though  his  injustice  to  the  Maroons  is  even 
there  so  glaring  as  to  provoke  the  indignation 


THE  MAROONS  OF  JAMAICA  149 

of  the  more  moderate  Dallas.  But,  in  spite 
of  Mr.  Edwards,  the  public  indignation  ran 
quite  high  in  England,  against  the  bloodhounds 
and  their  employers,  so  that  the  home  ministry 
found  it  necessary  to  send  a  severe  reproof  to 
the  Colonial  Government.  For  a  few  years  the 
tales  of  the  Maroons  thus  emerged  from  mere 
colonial  annals,  and  found  their  way  into 
annual  registers  and  parliamentary  debates ; 
but  they  have  long  since  vanished  from  popular 
memory.  Their  record  still  retains  its  interest, 
however,  as  that  of  one  of  the  heroic  races 
of  the  world ;  and  all  the  more,  because  it  is 
with  their  kindred  that  the  American  nation 
has  to  deal,  in  solving  one  of  the  most 
momentous  problems  of  its  future  career. 


THE   MAROONS   OF   SURINAM. 

~TTT~HEN  that  eccentric  individual,  Capt. 
John  Gabriel  Stedman,  resigned  his 
commission  in  the  English  Navy,  took  the  oath 
of  abjuration,  and  was  appointed  ensign  in  the 
Scots  brigade  employed  for  two  centuries  by 
Holland,  he  little  knew  that  "their  High 
Mightinesses  the  States  of  the  United  Prov 
inces"  would  send  him  out,  within  a  year,  to 
the  forests  of  Guiana,  to  subdue  rebel  negroes. 
He  never  imagined  that  the  year  1773  would 
behold  him  beneath  the  rainy  season  in  a 
tropical  country,  wading  through  marshes  and 
splashing  through  lakes,  exploring  with  his  feet 
for  submerged  paths,  commanding  impractic 
able  troops,  and  commanded  by  an  insufferable 
colonel,  feeding  on  greegree  worms  and  fed 
upon  by  mosquitos,  howled  at  by  jaguars,  hissed 
at  by  serpents,  and  shot  at  by  those  exceedingly 

150 


THE   MAROONS  OF  SURINAM  151 

unattainable  gentlemen,  "  still  longed  for,  never 
seen,"  the  Maroons  of  Surinam. 

Yet,  as  our  young  ensign  sailed  up  the  Suri 
nam  River,  the  world  of  tropic  beauty  came 
upon  him  with  enchantment.  Dark,  moist  ver 
dure  was  close  around  him,  rippling  waters 
below ;  the  tall  trees  of  the  jungle  and  the  low 
mangroves  beneath  were  all  hung  with  long 
vines  and  lianas,  a  maze  of  cordage,  like  a  fleet 
at  anchor ;  lithe  monkeys  travelled  ceaselessly 
up  and  down  these  airy  paths,  in  armies,  bear 
ing  their  young,  like  knapsacks,  on  their  backs ; 
macaws  and  humming-birds,  winged  jewels,  flew 
from  tree  to  tree.  As  they  neared  Paramaribo, 
the  river  became  a  smooth  canal  among  luxu 
riant  plantations ;  the  air  was  perfumed  music, 
redolent  of  orange-blossoms  and  echoing  with 
the  songs  of  birds  and  the  sweet  plash  of  oars ; 
gay  barges  came  forth  to  meet  them ;  "  while 
groups  of  naked  boys  and  girls  were  promis 
cuously  playing  and  flouncing,  like  so  many 
tritons  and  mermaids,  in  the  water."  And 
when  the  troops  disembarked,  —  five  hundred 
fine  young  men,  the  oldest  not  thirty,  all  arrayed 


152  TRAVELLERS  AND  OUTLAWS 

in  new  uniforms  and  bearing  orange-flowers  in 
their  caps,  a  bridal  wreath  for  beautiful  Guiana, 
—  it  is  no  wonder  that  the  Creole  ladies  were 
in  ecstasy ;  and  the  boyish  recruits  little  fore 
saw  the  day,  when,  reduced  to  a  few  dozens, 
barefooted  and  ragged  as  filibusters,  their  last 
survivors  would  gladly  re-embark  from  a  coun 
try  beside  which  even  Holland  looked  dry  and 
even  Scotland  comfortable. 

For  over  all  that  earthly  paradise  there 
brooded  not  alone  its  terrible  malaria,  its  days 
of  fever  and  its  nights  of  deadly  chill,  but  the 
worse  shadows  of  oppression  and  of  sin,  which 
neither  day  nor  night  could  banish.  The  first 
object  which  met  Stedman's  eye,  as  he  stepped 
on  shore,  was  the  figure  of  a  young  girl  stripped 
to  receive  two  hundred  lashes,  and  chained  to 
a  hundred-pound  weight.  And  the  few  first 
days  gave  a  glimpse  into  a  state  of  society 
worthy  of  this  exhibition,  —  men  without  mercy, 
women  without  modesty,  the  black  man  a  slave 
to  the  white  man's  passions,  and  the  white  man 
a  slave  to  his  own.  The  later  West-Indian 
society  in  its  worst  forms  is  probably  a  mere 


THE  MAROONS  OF  SURINAM       153 

dilution  of  the  utter  profligacy  of  those  early 
days.  Greek  or  Roman  decline  produced  noth 
ing  more  debilitating  or  destructive  than  the 
ordinary  life  of  a  Surinam  planter,  and  his  one 
virtue  of  hospitality  only  led  to  more  unbridled 
excesses  and  completed  the  work  of  vice.  No 
wonder  that  Stedman  himself,  who,  with  all 
his  peculiarities,  was  essentially  simple  and 
manly,  soon  became  disgusted,  and  made  haste 
to  get  into  the  woods  and  cultivate  the  society 
of  the  Maroons. 

The  rebels  against  whom  this  expedition  was! 
sent  were  not  the  original  Maroons  of  Surinam, 
but  ajater  generation.  The  originals  had  long 
since  established  their  independence,  and  their 
leaders  were  flourishing  their  honorary  silver- 
mounted  canes  in  the  streets  of  Paramaribo. 
Fugitive  negroes  had  begun  to  establish  them 
selves  in  the  woods  from  the  time  when  the 
colony  was  finally  ceded  by  the  English  to 
the  Dutch,  in  1674.  The  first  open  outbreak 
occurred  in  1726,  when  the  plantations  on  the 
Seramica  River  revolted ;  it  was  found  impos 
sible  to  subdue  them,  and  the  government  very 


154  TRAVELLERS  AND   OUTLAWS 

imprudently  resolved  to  make  an  example  of 
eleven  captives,  and  thus  terrify  the  rest  of  the 
rebels.  They  were  tortured  to  death,  eight  of 
the  eleven  being  women  :  this  drove  the  others 
to  madness,  and  plantation  after  plantation  was 
visited  with  fire  and  sword.  After  a  long  con 
flict,  their  chief,  Adoe,  was  induced  to  make  a 
treaty,  in  1749.  The  rebels  promised  to  keep 
the  peace,  and  in  turn  were  promised  freedom, 


money,   tools,  clothes,   and,   finally,  arms   and 
ammunition. 

But  no  permanent  peace  was  ever  made  upon 
a  barrel  of  gunpowder  as  a  basis ;  and,  of 
course,  an  explosion  followed  this  one.  The 
colonists  naturally  evaded  the  last  item  of  the 
bargain ;  and  the  rebels,  receiving  the  gifts,  and 
remarking  the  omission  of  the  part  of  Hamlet, 
asked  contemptuously  if  the  Europeans  ex 
pected  negroes  to  subsist  on  combs  and  look 
ing-glasses  ?  New  hostilities  at  once  began ; 
a  new  body  of  slaves  on  the  Ouca  River  re 
volted  ;  the  colonial  government  was  changed 
in  consequence,  and  fresh  troops  shipped  from 
Holland  ;  and  after  four  different  embassies 


THE  MAROONS  OF  SURINAM  155 

had  been  sent  into  the  woods,  the  rebels  began 
to  listen  to  reason.  The  black  generals,  Capt. 
Araby  and  Capt.  Boston,  agreed  upon  a  truce 
for  a  year,  during  which  the  colonial  gov 
ernment  might  decide  for  peace  or  war, 
the  Maroons  declaring  themselves  indifferent. 
Finally  the  government  chose  peace,  delivered 
ammunition,  and  made  a  treaty,  in  1761 ;  the 
white  and  black  plenipotentiaries  exchanged 
English  oaths  and  then  negro  oaths,  each  tast 
ing  a  drop  of  the  other's  blood  during  the 
latter  ceremony,  amid  a  volley  of  remarkable 
incantations  from  the  black  gadoman  or  priest. 
After  some  final  skirmishes,  in  which  the  rebels 
almost  always  triumphed,  the  treaty  was  at 
length  accepted  by  all  the  various  villages  of 
Maroons.  Had  they  known  that  at  this  very 
time  five  thousand  slaves  in  Berbice  were  just 
rising  against  their  masters,  and  were  looking 
to  them  for  assistance,  the  result  might  have 
been  different;  but  this  fact  had  not  reached 
them,  nor  had  the  rumors  of  insurrection  in 
Brazil  among  negro  and  Indian  slaves.  They 
consented,  therefore,  to  the  peace.  "  They 


156  TRAVELLERS  AND   OUTLAWS 

write  from  Surinam,"  says  the  "  Annual  Regis 
ter  "  for  Jan.  23,  1761,  "  that  the  Dutch  gov 
ernor,  finding  himself  unable  to  subdue  the 
rebel  negroes  of  that  country  by  force,  hath 
wisely  followed  the  example  of  Gov.  Trelawney 
at  Jamaica,  and  concluded  an  amicable  treaty 
with  them ;  in  consequence  of  which,  all  the 
negroes  of  the  woods  are  acknowledged  to  be 
free,  and  all  that  is  passed  is  buried  in  obliv 
ion."  So  ended  a  war  of  thirty-six  years ;  and 
in  Stedman's  day  the  original  three  thousand 
Ouca  and  Seramica  Maroons  had  multiplied, 
almost  incredibly,  to  fifteen  thousand. 

But  for  those  slaves  not  sharing  in  this  revolt 
it  was  not  so  easy  to  "  bury  the  whole  past  in 
oblivion."     The  Maroons  Jiad  told  som_e_very^ 
plain  truths  to  the  white  ambassadors,  andjiad 
frankly  advised  them,  if  they  wished  for  peace, 

to  mend   their  own   manners   and   treat   their 

•—•       _^^ 

chattels  humanely.  But  the  planters  learned 
nothing  by  experience,  —  and,  indeed,  the  ter 
rible  narrations  of  Stedman  were  confirmed  by 
those  of  Alexander,  so  lately  as  1831.  Of 
course,  therefore,  in  a  colony  comprising  eighty 


THE   MAROONS  OF  SURINAM  157 

^— V 

thousand  blacks  to  four  thousand  whites,  other 
revolts  were  stimulated  by  the  success  of  this 
one.     They  reached  their  highest  point  in  1772, 
when  an  insurrection  on  the  Cottica  River,  led 
by  a  negro  named  Baron,  almost  gave  the  finish 
ing  blow  to  the  colony ;  the  only  adequate  pro-    ]/& 
tection  being  found  in  a  body  of  slaves  liberated  < 
expressly  for  that  purpose,  —  a  dangerous  and 
humiliating  precedent.     "  We  have  been  obliged 
to  set  three  or  four  hundred  of  our  stoutest  ^ 
negroes  free  to  defend  us,"  says  an  honest  letter 
from  Surinam,  in  the  "Annual  Register"  for 
Sept.  5,  1772.     Fortunately  for  the  safety  of 
the  planters,  Baron  presumed  too  much  upon 
his  numbers,  and   injudiciously  built   a   camp 
too   near  the   seacoast,  in   a   marshy  fastness, 
from  which   he  was   finally  ejected   by  twelve 
hundred  Dutch  troops,  though  the  chief  work 
was    done,    Stedmari    thinks,    by    the    "  black  A. 
rangers  "  or  liberated  slaves.     Checked  by  this  \~ 
defeat,  he  again  drew  back   into    the    forests,  ' 
resuming  his  guerrilla  warfare  against  the  plan 
tations.     Nothing  could   dislodge  him ;   blood 
hounds  were  proposed,  but  the  moisture  of  the 


158  TRAVELLERS  AND  OUTLAWS 

country  made  them  useless :  and  thus  matters 
stood  when  Stedman  came  sailing,  amid  orange- 
blossoms  and  music,  up  the  winding  Surinam. 
Our  young  officer  went  into  the  woods  in  the 
condition  of  Falstaff,  "heinously  unprovided." 
Coming  from  the  unbounded  luxury  of  the 
plantations,  he  found  himself  entering  "the 
most  horrid  and  impenetrable  forests,  where  no 
kind  of  refreshment  was  to  be  had,"  —  he  being 
provisioned  only  with  salt  pork  and  pease. 
After  a  wail  of  sorrow  for  this  inhuman 
neglect,  he  bursts  into  a  gush  of  gratitude  for 
the  private  generosity  which  relieved  his  wants 
at  the  last  moment  by  the  following  list  of 
supplies :  "  24  bottles  best  claret,  12  ditto 
Madeira,  12  ditto  porter,  12  ditto  cider,  12 
ditto  rum,  2  large  loaves  white  sugar,  2  gallons 
brandy,  6  bottles  muscadel,  2  gallons  lemon- 
juice,  2  gallons  ground  coffee,  2  large  West 
phalia  hams,  2  salted  bullocks'  tongues,  1  bottle 
Durham  mustard,  6  dozen  spermaceti  candles." 
The  hams  and  tongues  seem,  indeed,  rather  a 
poor  halfpennyworth  to  this  intolerable  deal  of 
sack ;  but  this  instance  of  Surinam  privation  in 


THE  MAROONS  OF  SURINAM       159 

those  days  may  open  some  glimpse  at  the  colo 
nial  standards  of  comfort.  "From  this  speci 
men,"  moralizes  our  hero,  "the  reader  will 
easily  perceive,  that,  if  some  of  the  inhabitants 
of  Surinam  show  themselves  the  disgrace  of  the 
creation  by  their  cruelties  and  brutality,  others, 
by  their  social  feelings,  approve  themselves  an 
ornament  to  the  human  species.  With  this 
instance  of  virtue  and  generosity  I  therefore 
conclude  this  chapter." 

But  the  troops  soon  had  to  undergo  worse 
troubles  than  those  of  the  commissariat.     The 
rainy   season   had  just   set    in.     "As   for   the 
negroes,"  said  Mr.  Klynhaus,  the  last  planter 
with  whom  they  parted,  "  you  may  depend  on 
never  seeing  a  soul  of  them,  unless  they  attack    ^ 
you  off  guard ;  but  the  climate,  the  climate,  will 
murder  you  all."     Bringing  with  them  constitu-  ' 
tions  already  impaired  by  the  fevers  and  dissi 
pation  of  Paramaribo,  the  poor  boys  began  to^ 
perish  long  before  they  began  to  fight.     Wad 
ing  in  water  all  day,  hanging  their  hammocks 
over  water  at  night,  it  seemed  a  moist  exist 
ence,  even  compared  with  the  climate  of  Eng- 


160  TRAVELLERS  AND   OUTLAWS 

land  and  the  soil  of  Holland.  It  was  a  case  of 
"  Invent  a  shovel,  and  be  a  magistrate,"  even 
more  than  Andrew  Marvell  found  it  in  the 
United  Provinces.  In  fact,  Raynal  evidently 
thinks  that  nothing  but  Dutch  experience  in 
hydraulics  could  ever  have  cultivated  Surinam. 
The  two  gunboats  which  held  one  division 
of  the  expedition  were  merely  old  sugar-barges, 
roofed  over  with  boards,  and  looking  like  cof 
fins.  They  were  pleasantly  named  the  "Cha 
ron"  and  the  "Cerberus,"  but  Stedman 
thought  that  the  "Sudden  Death"  and  the 
"  Wilful  Murder "  would  have  been  titles 
more  appropriate.  The  chief  duty  of  the 
troops  consisted  in  lying  at  anchor  at  the 
intersections  of  wooded  streams,  waiting  for 
rebels  who  never  came.  It  was  dismal  work, 
and  the  raw  recruits  were  full  of  the  same 
imaginary  terrors  which  have  haunted  other 
heroes  less  severely  tested :  the  monkeys  never 
rattled  the  cocoa-nuts  against  the  trees,  but 
they  all  heard  the  axes  of  Maroon  wood- 
choppers  ;  and  when  a  sentinel  declared,  one 
night,  that  he  had  seen  a  negro  go  down  the 


THE   MAROONS  OF  SURINAM  161 

river  in  a  canoe,  with  his  pipe  lighted,  the 
whole  force  was  called  to  arms  —  against  a 
firefly.  In  fact,  the  insect  race  brought  by 
far  the  most  substantial  dangers.  The  rebels 
eluded  the  military,  but  the  chigres,  locusts, 
scorpions,  and  bush-spiders  were  ever  ready 
to  come  half-way  to  meet  them  ;  likewise  ser 
pents  and  alligators  proffered  them  the  free 
dom  of  the  forests,  and  exhibited  a  hospital 
ity  almost  excessive.  Snakes  twenty  feet  long 
hung  their  seductive  length  from  the  trees; 
jaguars  volunteered  their  society  through 
almost  impenetrable  marshes ;  vampire  bats 
perched  by  night  with  lulling  endearments 
upon  the  toes  of  the  soldiers.  When  Sted- 
man  describes  himself  as  killing  thirty-eight 
mosquitoes  at  one  stroke,  we  must  perhaps 
pardon  something  to  the  spirit  of  martyrdom. 
But  when  we  add  to  these  the  other  woes  of 
his  catalogue,-— prickly-heat,  ringworm,  putrid- 
fever,  "the  growling  of  Col.  Fougeaud,  dry 
sandy  savannas,  unfordable  marshes,  burning 
hot  days,  cold  and  damp  nights,  heavy  rains, 
and  short  allowance,"  —  we  can  hardly  wonder 


162  TRAVELLERS  AND   OUTLAWS 

that  three  captains  died  in  a  month,  and  that 
in  two  months  his  detachment  of  forty-two 
was  reduced  to  a  miserable  seven. 

Yet,  through  all  this,  Stedman  himself  kept 
his  health.  His  theory  of  the  matter  almost 
recalls  the  time-honored  prescription  of  "A 
light  heart  and  a  thin  pair  of  breeches,"  for 
he  attributes  his  good  condition  to  his  keep 
ing  up  his  spirits  and  kicking  off  his  shoes. 
Daily  bathing  in  the  river  had  also  something 
to  do  with  it ;  and,  indeed,  hydropathy  was 
first  learned  of  the  West-India  Maroons,  —  who 
did  their  "  packing  "  in  wet  clay,  —  and  was 
carried  by  Dr.  Wright  to  England.  But  his 
extraordinary  personal  qualities  must  have 
contributed  most  to  his  preservation.  Never 
did  a  "meagre,  starved,  black,  burnt,  and 
ragged  tatterdemalion,"  as  he  calls  himself, 
carry  about  him  such  a  fund  of  sentiment, 
philosophy,  poetry,  and  art.  He  had  a  great 
faculty  for  sketching,  as  the  engravings  in  his 
volumes,  with  all  their  odd  peculiarities,  show ; 
his  deepest  woes  he  coined  always  into  coup 
lets,  and  fortified  himself  against  hopeless 


THE  MAROONS  OF  SURINAM  163 

despair  with  Ovid  and  Valerius  Flaccus,  Pope's 
Homer  and  Thomson's  "  Seasons."  Above  all 
reigned  his  passion  for  natural  history,  a  ready 
balm  for  every  ill.  Here  he  was  never  want 
ing  to  the  occasion ;  and,  to  do  justice  to 
Dutch  Guiana,  the  occasion  never  was  want 
ing  to  him.  Were  his  men  sickening,  the 
peccaries  were  always  healthy  without  the 
camp,  and  the  cockroaches  within ;  just  escap 
ing  from  a  she-jaguar,  he  satisfies  himself,  ere 
he  flees,  that  the  print  of  her  claws  on  the 
sand  is  precisely  the  size  of  a  pewter  dinner- 
plate  ;  bitten  by  a  scorpion,  he  makes  sure  of 
a  scientific  description  in  case  he  should  ex 
pire  of  the  bite ;  is  the  water  undrinkable, 
there  is  at  least  some  rational  interest  in  the 
number  of  legs  possessed  by  the  centipedes 
which  pre-occupy  it.  This  is  the  highest  tri 
umph  of  man  over  his  accidents,  when  he  thus 
turns  his  pains  to  gains,  and  becomes  an  ento 
mologist  in  the  tropics. 

.-— • — •""" 

Meanwhile  the  rebels  kept  their  own  course 


in  the  forests,  and  occasionally  descended  upon 
•plantations   beside    the   very   river   on   whose 


164  TRAVELLERS  AND  OUTLAWS 

upper  waters  the  useless  troops  were  sicken 
ing  and  dying.  Stedman  himself  made  several 
campaigns,  with  long  intervals  of  illness,  before 
he  came  any  nearer  to  the  enemy  than  to  burn 
_a  deserted  village  or  destroy  a  rice-field.  Some 
times  they  left  the  "Charon"  and  the  "Cerbe 
rus"  moored  by  grape-vines  to  the  pine-trees, 
and  made  expeditions  into  the  woods,  single  file. 
Our  ensign,  true  to  himself,  gives  the  minutest 
schedule  of  the  order  of  march,  and  the  oddest 
little  diagram  of  manikins  with  cocked  hats, 
and  blacker  manikins  bearing  burdens.  First, 
negroes  with  bill-hooks  to  clear  the  way ;  then 
the  van-guard;  then  the  main  body,  inter 
spersed  with  negroes  bearing  boxes  of  ball- 
cartridges  ;  then  the  rear-guard,  with  many 
more  negroes,  bearing  camp-equipage,  provis 
ions,  and  new  rum,  surnamed  "  kill-devil,"  and 
appropriately  followed  by  a  sort  of  palanquin 
for  the  disabled.  Thus  arrayed,  they  marched 
valorously  forth  into  the  woods,  to  some  given 
point ;  then  they  turned,  marched  back  to  the 
boats,  then  rowed  back  to  camp,  and  straight 
way  went  into  the  hospital.  Immediately  upon 


THE   MAROONS  OF  SURINAM  165 

this,  the  coast  being  clear,  Baron  and  his  rebels 
marched  out  again,  and  proceeded  to  business. 

In  the  course  of  years,  t.h PSP  Marnnn a  had 
acquired  their  own  peculiar  tactics.  They 
built  stockaded  fortresses  on  marshy  islands, 
accessible  by  fords  which  they  alone  could 
traverse.  These  they  defended  further  by 
sharp  wooden  pins,  or  crows'-feet,  concealed 
beneath  the  surface  of  the  miry  ground,  —  and, 
latterly,  by  the  more  substantial  protection  of 
cannon,  which  they  dragged  into  the  woods, 
and  learned  to  use.  Their  bush-fighting  was 
unique.  Having  always  more  men  than  weap 
ons,  they  arranged  their  warriors  in  threes,  — 
one  to  use  the  musket,  another  to  take  his 
place  if  wounded  or  slain,  and  a  third  to  drag 
away  the  body.  They  had  Indian  stealthiness 
and  swiftness,  with  more  than  Indian  discipline ; 
discharged  their  fire  with  some  approach  to  reg 
ularity,  in  three  successive  lines,  the  signals 
being  given  by  the  captain's  horn.  They  were 
full  of  ingenuity :  marked  their  movements  for 
each  other  by  scattered  leaves  and  blazed  trees ; 
ran  zigzag,  to  dodge  bullets  ;  gave  wooden  guns 


166  TRAVELLERS  AND  OUTLAWS 

to  their  unarmed  men,  to  frighten  the  planta 
tion  negroes  on  their  guerrilla  expeditions ;  and 
borrowed  the  red  caps  of  the  black  rangers 
whom  they  slew,  to  bewilder  the  aim  of  the 
others.  One  of  them,  finding  himself  close  to 
the  muzzle  of  a  ranger's  gun,  threw  up  his  hand 
hastily.  "What!"  he  exclaimed,  "will  you 
fire  on  one  of  your  own  party  ? "  "  God 
forbid ! "  cried  the  ranger,  dropping  his  piece, 
and  was  instantly  shot  through  the  body  by  the 
Maroon,  who  the  next  instant  had  disappeared 
in  the  woods. 

These  rebels  were  no  saints:  their  worship 
was  obi-worship;  the  women  had  not  far  out 
grown  the  plantation  standard  of  chastity,  and 
the  men  drank  "  kill-devil "  like  their  betters. 
Stedman  was  struck  with  the  difference  between 
the  meaning  of  the  word  "  good  "  in  rebellious 
circles  and  in  reputable.  "  It  must,  however, 
be  observed,  that  what  we  Europeans  call  a  good 
character  was  by  the  Africans  looked  upon  as 
detestable,  especially  by  those  born  in  the 
woods,  whose  only  crime  consisted  in  avenging 
the  wrongs  done  to  their  forefathers."  But  if 


THE  MAROONS  OF  SURINAM  167 

martial  virtues  be  virtues,  such  were  theirs. 
Not  a  rebel  ever  turned  traitor  or  informer,  ever 
flinched  in  battle  or  under  torture,  ever  violated 
a  treaty  or  even  a  private  promise.  But  it  was 
their  power  of  endurance  which  was  especially 
astounding ;  Stedman  is  never  weary  of  paying 
tribute  to  this,  or  of  illustrating  it  in  sickening 
detail;  indeed,  the  records  of  the  world  show 
nothing  to  surpass  it ;  "  the  lifted  axe,  the 
agonizing  wheel,"  proved  powerless  to  subdue 
it ;  with  every  limb  lopped,  every  bone  broken, 
the  victims  yet  defied  their  tormentors,  laughed, 
sang,  and  died  triumphant. 

Of  course  they  repaid  these  atrocities  in 
kind.  If  they  had  not,  it  would  have  demon 
strated  the  absurd  paradox,  that  slavery  edu] 
cates  higher  virtues  than  freedom.  It  bewilders 
all  the  relations  of  human  responsibility,  if  we 
expect  the  insurrectionary  slave  to  commit  no 
outrages ;  if  slavery  has  not  depraved  him,  it 
has  done  him  little  harm.  If  it  be  the  normal 
tendency  of  bondage  to  produce  saints  like 
Uncle  Tom,  let  us  all  offer  ourselves  at  auction 
immediately.  It  is  Gassy  and  Dred  who  are 


168  TRAVELLERS  AND   OUTLAWS 

the  normal  protest  of  human  nature  against 
systems  which  degrade  it.  Accordingly,  these 
poor,  ignorant  Maroons,  who  had  seen  their 
brothers  and  sisters  flogged,  burned,  mutilated, 
hanged  on  iron  hooks,  broken  on  the  wheel, 
and  had  been  all  the  while  solemnly  assured 
that  this  was  paternal  government,  could  only 
repay  the  paternalism  in  the  same  fashion, 
when  they  had  the  power.  Stedman  saw  a 
negro  chained  to  a  red-hot  distillery-furnace  ; 
he  saw  disobedient  slaves,  in  repeated  in 
stances,  punished  by  the  amputation  of  a  leg, 
and  sent  to  boat-service  for  the  rest  of  their 
lives ;  and  of  course  the  rebels  borrowed  these 
suggestions.  They  could  bear  to  watch  their 
captives  expire  under  the  lash,  for  they  had 
previously  watched  their  parents.  If  the  gov 
ernment  rangers  received  twenty-five  florins 
for  every  rebel  right-hand  which  they  brought 
in,  of  course  they  risked  their  own  right  hands 
in  the  pursuit.  The_difFerence  was,  that  the 
one  brutality  was  that_of__flu-mighty  state,  and 
the  other  was  only  the  retaliation  of  the 
victims.  And  after  all,  Stedman  never  ven- 


THE  MAROONS  OF  SURINAM  169 

tures  to  assert  that  the  imitation  equalled  the 
original,  or  that  the  Maroons  had  inflicted 
nearly  so  much  as  they  had  suffered. 

The  leaders  of  the  rebels,  especially,  were 
men  who  had  each  his  own  story  of  wrongs 
to  tell.  Baron,  the  most  formidable,  had  been 
the  slave  of  a  Swedish  gentleman,  who  had 
taught  him  to  read  and  write,  taken  him  to 
Europe,  promised  .  to  manumit  him  on  his 
return  —  and  then,  breaking  his  word,  sold 
him  to  a  Jew.  Baron  refused  to  work  for  his 
new  master,  was  publicly  flogged  under  the 
gallows,  fled  to  the  woods  next  day,  and  became 
the  terror  of  the  colony.  Joli  Coeur,  his  first 
captain,  was  avenging  the  cruel  wrongs  of  his 
mother.  Bonny,  another  leader,  was  born  in 
the  woods,  his  mother  having  taken  refuge 
there  just  previously,  to  escape  from  his  father, 
who  was  also  his  master.  Cojo,  another,  had 
defended  his  master  against  the  insurgents 
until  he  was  obliged  by  ill  usage  to  take 
refuge  among  them ;  and  he  still  bore  upon 
his  wrist,  when  Stedman  saw  him,  a  silver 
band,  with  the  inscription,  —  "True  to  the 


170  TRAVELLERS  AND  OUTLAWS 

Europeans."  In  dealing  with  wrongs  like 
these,  Mr.  Carlyle  would  have  found  the 
despised  negroes  quite  as  ready  as  himself  to 
take  the  total-abstinence  pledge  against  rose- 
water. 

In  his  first  _two-months'  campaign,  Stedman 


never  saw  the  trace  of  a  Maroon ;  in  the 
second,  he  once  came  upon  their  trail;  in 
the  third,  one  captive  was  brought  in,  two 
surrendered  themselves  voluntarily,  and  a  large 
party  was  found  to  have  crossed  a  river  within 
a  mile  of  the  camp,  ferrying  themselves  on 
palm-trunks,  according  to  their  fashion.  Deep 
swamps  and  scorching  sands,  toiling  through 
briers  all  day,  and  sleeping  at  night  in 
hammocks  suspended  over  stagnant  water, 
with  weapons  supported  on  sticks  crossed 
beneath, — all  this  was  endured  for  two  years 
and  a  half,  before  Stedman  personally  came  in 
sight  of  the  enemy. 

On  Aug.  20,  1775,  the  troops  found  them 
selves  at  last  in  the  midst  of  the  rebel  settle 
ments.  These  villages  and  forts  bore  a  variety 
of  expressive  names,  such  as  "Hide  me.  O 


THE   MAROONS   OF  SURINAM  171 

thou  surrounding  verdure,"  "  I  shall  be  taken," 
"  The  woods  lament  for  me,"  "  Disturb  me,  if 
you  dare,"  "Take  a  tasting,  if  you  like  it," 
"  Come,  try  me,  if  }rou  be  men,"  "  God  knows 
me,  and  none  else,"  "  I  shall  moulder  before  I 
shall  be  taken."  Some  were  only  plantation- 
grounds  with  a  few  huts,  and  were  easily  laid 
waste ;  but  all  were  protected  more  or  less  by 
their  mere  situations.  Quagmires  surrounded 
them,  covered  by  a  thin  crust  of  verdure,  some 
times  broken  through  by  one  man's  weight, 
when  the  victim  sank  hopelessly  into  the  black 
and  bottomless  depths  below.  In  other  direc 
tions  there  was  a  solid  bottom,  but  inconven 
iently  covered  by  three  or  four  feet  of  water, 
through  which  the  troops  waded  breast-deep, 
holding  their  muskets  high  in  the  air,  unable 
to  reload  them  when  once  discharged,  and 
liable  to  be  picked  off  by  rebel  scouts,  who 
ingeniously  posted  themselves  in  the  tops  of 
palm-trees. 

Through  this  delectable  region  Col.  Fougeaud 
and  his  followers  slowly  advanced,  drawing 
near  the  fatal  shore  where  Capt.  Meyland's 


172  TRAVELLERS   AND   OUTLAWS 

detachment  had  just  been  defeated,  and  where 
their  mangled  remains  still  polluted  the  beach. 
Passing  this  point  of  danger  without  attack, 
they  suddenly  met  a  small  party  of  rebels,  each 
bearing  on  his  back  a  beautifully  woven  hamper 
of  snow-white  rice:  these  loads  they  threw 
down,  and  disappeared.  Next  appeared  an 
armed  body  from  the  same  direction,  who  fired 
upon  them  once,  and  swiftly  retreated ;  and  in 
a  few  moments  the  soldiers  came  upon  a  large 
field  of  standing  rice,  beyond  which  lay,  like  an 
amphitheatre,  the  rebel  village.  But  between 
the  village  and  the  field  had  been  piled  succes 
sive  defences  of  logs  and  branches,  behind 
which  simple  redoubts  the  Maroons  lay  con 
cealed.  A  fight  ensued,  lasting  forty  minutes, 
during  which  nearly  every  soldier  and  ranger 
was  wounded ;  but,  to  their  great  amazement, 
not  one  was  killed.  This  was  an  enigma  to 
them  until  after  the  skirmish,  when  the  surgeon 
found  that  most  of  them  had  been  struck,  not 
by  bullets,  but  by  various  substitutes,  such  as 
pebbles,  coat-buttons,  and  bits  of  silver  coin, 
which  had  penetrated  only  skin  deep.  "  We 


THE  MAROONS  OF  SURINAM  173 

also  observed  that  several  of  the  poor  rebel 
negroes,  who  had  been  shot,  had  only  the  shards 
of  Spa-water  cans  instead  of  flints,  which  could 
seldom  do  execution ;  and  it  was  certainly 
owing  to  these  circumstances  that  we  came  off 
so  well." 

The  rebels  at  length  retreated,  first  setting 
fire  to  their  village ;  a  hundred  or  more  lightly 
built  houses,  some  of  them  two  stories  high, 
were  soon  in  flames ;  and  as  this  conflagration 
occupied  the  only  neck  of  land  between  two 
impassable  morasses,  the  troops  were  unable  to 
follow,  and  the  Maroons  had  left  nothing  but 
rice-fields  to  be  pillaged.  That  night  the  mili 
tary  force  was  encamped  in  the  woods ;  their 
ammunition  was  almost  gone,  so  they  were 
ordered  to  lie  flat  on  the  ground,  even  in  case 
of  attack ;  they  could  not  so  much  as  build  a 
fire.  Before  midnight  an  attack  Avas  made  on 
them,  partly  with  bullets,  and  partly  with 
words.  The  Maroons  were  all  around  them  in 
the  forest,  but  their  object  was  a  puzzle  ;  they 
spent  most  of  the  night  in  bandying  compli 
ments  with  the  black  rangers,  whom  they  alter- 


174  TRAVELLERS  AND   OUTLAWS 

nately  denounced,  ridiculed,  and  challenged  to 
single  combat.  At  last  Fougeaud  and  Stedman 
joined  in  the  conversation,  and  endeavored  to 
make  this  midnight  volley  of  talk  the  occasion 
for  a  treaty.  This  was  received  with  inextin 
guishable  laughter,  which  echoed  through  the 
woods  like  a  concert  of  screech-owls,  ending  in 
a  charivari  of  horns  and  hallooing.  The  colonel, 
persisting,  offered  them  "life,  liberty,  victuals, 
drink,  and  all  they  wanted ; "  in  return,  they 
ridiculed  him  unmercifully.  He  was  a  half- 
starved  Frenchman,  who  had  run  away  from 
his  own  country,  and  would  soon  run  away 
from  theirs;  they  profoundly  pitied  him  and 
his  soldiers ;  they  would  scorn  to  spend  powder 
on  such  scarecrows ;  they  would  rather  feed 
and  clothe  them,  as  being  poor  white  slaves, 
hired  to  be  shot  at,  and  starved*  for  fourpence 
a  day.  But  as  for  the  planters,  overseers,  and 
grangers,  they  should  die,  every  one  of  them, 
frnd  Bonny  should  be  governor  of  the  colony. 
"  After  this,  they  tinkled  their  bill-hooks,  fired 
a  volley,  and  gave  three  cheers ;  which,  being 
answered  by  the  rangers,  the  clamor  ended, 


THE  MAROONS  OF  SURINAM  175 

and  the  rebels  dispersed  with  the  rising 
sun." 

Very  aimless  nonsense  it  certainly  appeared. 
But  the  next  day  put  a  new  aspect  on  it ;  for 
it  was  found,  that,  under  cover  of  all  this 
noise,  the  Maroons  had  been  busily  occupied 
all  night,  men,  women,  and  children,  in  pre 
paring  and  filling  great  hampers  of  the  finest 
rice,  yams,  and  cassava,  from  the  adjacent 
provision-grounds,  to  be  used  for  subsistence 
during  their  escape,  leaving  only  chaff  and 
refuse  for  the  hungry  soldiers.  "  This  was 
certainly  such  a  masterly  trait  of  generalship 
in  a  savage  people,  whom  we  affected  to 
despise,  as  would  have  done  honor  to  any 
European  commander." 

From  this  time  the  Maroons  fulfilled  their 
threats.  Shooting  down  without  mercy  every 
black  ranger  who  came  within  their  reach,  — 
one  of  these  rangers  being,  in  Stedman's  esti 
mate,  worth  six  white  soldiers,  —  they  left  Col. 
Fougeaud  and  his  regulars  to  die  of  starvation 
and  fatigue.  The  enraged  colonel,  "  finding 
himself  thus  foiled  by  a  naked  negro,  swore  he 


176  TRAVELLERS  AND   OUTLAWS 

would  pursue  Bonny  to  the  world's  end."  But 
he  never  got  any  nearer  than  to  Bonny 's 
kitchen-gardens.  He  put  the  troops  on  half- 
allowance,  sent  back  for  provisions  and  ammu 
nition, —  and  within  ten  days  changed  his 
mind,  and  retreated  to  the  settlements  in 
despair.  Soon  after,  this  very  body  of  rebels, 
under  Bonny's  leadership,  plundered  two  plan 
tations  in  the  vicinity,  and  nearly  captured  a 
powder-magazine,  which  was,  however,  suc 
cessfully  defended  by  some  armed  slaves. 

For  a  year  longer  these  expeditions  con 
tinued.  The  troops  never  gained  a  victory, 
and  they  Jgst  twenty^  men  for  every  rebel 
jdlled^but  they  gradually  checked  thTpIUndeV 
of  plantations,  destroyed  villages  and  planting- 
grounds,  and  drove  the  rebels,  for  the  time 
at  least,  into  the  deeper  recesses  of  the  woods, 
or  into  the  adjacent  province  of  Cayenne. 
They  had  the  slight  satisfaction  of  burning 
Bonny's  own  house,  a  two-story  wooden  hut, 
built  in  the  fashion  of  our  frontier  guard 
houses.  They  often  took  single  prisoners,  — 
some  child,  born  and  bred  in  the  woods,  and 


THE  MAROONS  OF  SURINAM  177 

frightened  equally  by  the  first  sight  of  a  white 
man  and  of  a  cow,  —  or  some  warrior,  who,  on 
being  threatened  with  torture,  stretched  forth 
both  hands  in  disdain,  and  said,  with  Indian 
eloquence,  "These  hands  have  made  tigers 
tremble."  As  for  Stedman,  he  still  went  bare 
footed,  still  quarrelled  with  his  colonel,  still 
sketched  the  scenery  and  described  the  reptiles, 
still  reared  greegree  worms  for  his  private 
kitchen,  still  quoted  good  poetry  and  wrote 
execrable,  still  pitied  all  the  sufferers  around 
him,  black,  white,  and  red,  until  finally  he  and 
his  comrades  were  ordered  back  to  Holland  in 
1776. 

Among  all  that  wasted  regiment  of  weary 
and  broken-down  men,  there  was  probably  no 
one  but  Stedman  who  looked  backward  with 
longing  as  they  sailed  down  the  lovely  Surinam. 
True,  he  bore  all  his  precious  collections  with 
him,  —  parrots  and  butterflies,  drawings  on  the 
backs  of  old  letters,  and  journals  kept  on  bones 
and  cartridges.  But  he  had  left  behind  him  a 
dearer  treasure  ;  for  there  runs  through  all  his 
eccentric  narrative  a  single  thread  of  pure 


178  TRAVELLERS  AND  OUTLAWS 

romance,  in  his  love  for  his  beautiful  quadroon 
wife  and  his  only  son. 

Within  a  month  after  his  arrival  in  the 
colony,  our  susceptible  ensign  first  saw  Joanna, 
a  slave-girl  of  fifteen,  at  the  house  of  an  inti 
mate  friend.  Her  extreme  beauty  and  modesty 
first  fascinated  him,  and  then  her  piteous 
narrative, — for  she  jvvas__the  daughter  of  a 
planter,  who  had  just  gone  mad  and  died  in 
despair  from  the  discovery  that  he  could  not 
legally  emancipate  his  own  children  from 
slavery.  Soon  after,  Stedman  was  danger 
ously  ill,  was  neglected  and  alone ;  fruits  and 
cordials  were  anonymously  sent  to  him,  which 
proved  at  last  to  have  come  from  Joanna ;  and 
she  came  herself,  ere  long,  and  nursed  him, 
grateful  for  the  visible  sympathy  he  had  shown 
to  her.  This  completed  the  conquest ;  the 
passionate  young  Englishman,  once  recovered, 
loaded  her  with  presents  which  she  refused ; 
talked  of  purchasing  her,  and  educating  her  in, 
Europe,  which  she  also  declined  as  burdening 
him  too  greatly ;  and  finally,  amid  the  ridicule 
of  all  good  society  in  Paramaribo,  surmounted 


THE  MAROONS  OF  SURINAM  179 

all  legal  obstacles,  and  was  united  to  the  beau 
tiful  girl  in  honorable  marriage.  He  provided 
a  cottage  for  her,  where  he  spent  his  furloughs, 
in  perfect  happiness,  for  four  years. 

The  simple  idyl  of  their  loves  was  unbroken 
by  any  stain  or  disappointment,  and  yet  always 
shadowed  with  the  deepest  anxiety  for  the 
future.  Though  treated  with  the  utmost  indul 
gence,  she  was  legally  a  slave,  and  so  was  the 
boy  of  whom  she  became  the  mother.  Cojo, 
her  uncle,  was  a  captain  among  the  rebels 
against  whom  her  husband  fought.  And  up 
to  the  time  when  Stedman  was  ordered  back  to 
Holland,  he  was  unable  to  purchase  her  free 
dom  ',  nor  could  he,  until  the  very  last  moment, 
procure  the  emancipation  of  his  boy.  His 
perfect  delight  at  this  last  triumph,  when 
obtained,  elicited  some  satire  from  his  white 
friends.  "  While  the  well-thinking  few  highly 
applauded  my  sensibility,  many  not  only 
blamed  but  publicly  derided  me  for  my  pater 
nal  affection,  which  was  called  a  weakness,  a 
whim."  "  Nearly  forty  beautiful  boys  and  girls 
were  left  to  perpetual  slavery  by  their  parents 


180  TRAVELLERS   AND   OUTLAWS 

of  my  acquaintance,  and  many  of  them  without 
being  so  much  as  once  inquired  after  at  all." 

But  Stedman  was  a  true-hearted  fellow,  if  his 
sentiment  did  sometimes  run  to  rodomontade ; 
he  left  his  Joanna  only  in  the  hope  that  a  year 
or  two  in  Europe  would  repair  his  ruined  for 
tunes,  and  he  could  return  to  treat  himself  to 
the  purchase  of  his  own  wedded  wife.  He 
describes,  with  unaffected  pathos,  their  parting 
scene,  —  though,  indeed^  there  were  several  suc 
cessive  partings, — and  closes  the  description 
in  a  characteristic  manner:  "My  melancholy 
having  surpassed  all  description,  I  at  last  de 
termined  to  weather  one  or  two  painful  years 
in  her  absence ;  and  in  the  afternoon  went  to 
dissipate  my  mind  at  a  Mr.  Roux'  cabinet  of 
Indian  curiosities ;  where,  as  my  eye  chanced 
to  fall  on  a  rattlesnake,  I  will,  before  I  leave 
the  coleny,  describe  this  dangerous  reptile." 

It  was  impossible  to  write  the  history  of  the 
Maroons  of  Surinam  except  through  the  biog 
raphy  of  our  ensign  (at  last  promoted  captain), 
because  nearly  all  we  know  of  them  is  through 
his  quaint  and  picturesque  narrative,  with  its 


THE  MAROONS  OF  SURINAM  181 

profuse  illustrations  by  his  own  hand.  It  is 
not  fair,  therefore,  to  end  without  chronicling 
his  safe  arrival  in  Holland,  on  June  3,  1777. 
It  is  a  remarkable  fact,  that,  after  his  life  in 
the  woods,  even  the  Dutch  looked  slovenly 
to  his  eyes.  "  The  inhabitants,  who  crowded 
about  us,  appeared  but  a  disgusting  assemblage 
of  ill-formed  and  ill-dressed  rabble,  —  so  much 
had  my  prejudices  been  changed  by  living 
among  Indians  and  blacks:  their  eyes  seemed 
to  resemble  those  of  a  pig;  their  complexions 
were  like  the  color  of  foul  linen ;  they  seemed 
to  have  no  teeth,  and  to  be  covered  over  with 
rags  and  dirt.  This  prejudice,  however,  was 
not  against  these  people  only,  but  against  all 
Europeans  in  general,  when  compared  to  the 
sparkling  eyes,  ivory  teeth,  shining  skin,  and 
remarkable  cleanliness  of  those  I  had  left 
behind  me."  Yet,  in  spite  of  these  superior 
attractions,  he  never  recrossed  the  Atlantic; 
for  his  Joanna  died  soon  after,  and  his  promis 
ing  son,  being  sent  to  the  father,  was  educated 
in  England,  became  a  midshipman  in  the  navy, 
and  was  lost  at  sea.  With  his  elegy,  in  which 


182  TRAVELLERS  AND  OUTLAWS 

the  last  depths  of  bathos  are  sadly  sounded  by 
a  mourning  parent,  —  who  is  induced  to  print 
them  only  by  "the  effect  they  had  on  the 
sympathetic  and  ingenious  Mrs.  Cowley,"  — 
the  "Narrative  of  a  Five  Years'  Expedition" 
closes. 

The  war,  which  had  cost  the  government 
forty  thousand  pounds  a  year,  was  ended,  and 
left  both  parties  essentially  as  when  it  began. 
The  Maroons  gradually  returned  to  their  old 
abodes,  and,  being  unmolested  themselves,  left 
others  unmolested  thenceforward.  Originally 
three  thousand,  —  in  Stedman's  time,  fifteen 
thousand,  —  they  were  estimated  at  seventy 
thousand  by  Capt.  Alexander,  who  saw  Guiana 
in  1831 ;  and  a  later  American  scientific  expe 
dition,  having  visited  them  in  their  homes, 
reported  them  as  still  enjoying  their  wild  free 
dom,  and  multiplying,  wliile  the  Indians  on^tlie 
same  soil  decay.  The  beautiful  forests  of  Suri 
nam  still  make  the  morning  gorgeous  with  their 
beauty,  and  the  night  deadly  with  their  chill ; 
the  stately  palm  still  rears,  a  hundred  feet  in 
air,  its  straight  gray  shaft  and  its  head  of 


THE   MAROONS   OF  SURINAM  183 

verdure ;  the  mora  builds  its  solid,  buttressed 
trunk,  a  pedestal  for  the  eagle ;  the  pine  of  the 
tropics  holds  out  its  myriad  hands  with  water- 
cups  for  the  rain  and  dews,  where  all  the  birds 
and  the  monkeys  may  drink  their  fill ;  the 
trees  are  garlanded  with  epiphytes  and  con- 
volvuli,  and  anchored  to  the  earth  by  a  thou 
sand  vines.  High  among  their  branches,  the 
red  and  yellow  mocking-birds  still  build  their 
hanging  nests,  uncouth  storks  and  tree-porcu 
pines  cling  above,  and  the  spotted  deer  and 
the  tapir  drink  from  the  sluggish  stream  below. 
The  night  is  still  made  noisy  with  a  thousand 
cries  of  bird  and  beas't ;  and  the  stillness  of  the 
sultry  noon  is  broken  by  the  slow  tolling  of 
the  campanero,  or  bell-bird,  far  in  the  deep, 
dark  woods,  like  the  chime  of  some  lost  con 
vent.  And  as  Nature  is  unchanged  there,  so 
apparently  is  man ;  the  Maroons  still  retain 
their  savage  freedom,  still  shoot  their  wild 
game  and  trap  their  fish,  still  raise  their  rice 
and  cassava,  yams  and  plantains,  —  still  make 
cups  from  the  gourd-tree  and  hammocks  from 
the  silk-grass  plant,  wine  from  the  palm-tree's 


184  TRAVELLERS  AND  OUTLAWS 

sap,  brooms  from  its  leaves,  fishing-lines  from 
its  fibres,  and  salt  from  its  ashes.  Their  life 
does  not  yield,  indeed,  the  very  highest  results 
of  spiritual  culture ;  its  mental  and  moral  re 
sults  may  not  come  up  to  the  level  of  civiliza 
tion,  but  they  rise  far  above  the  level  of  slavery. 
In  the  changes  of  time,  the  Maroons  may  yet 
elevate  themselves  into  the  one,  but  they  will 
never  relapse  into  the  other. 


GABRIEL'S   DEFEAT 

T~N  exploring  among  dusty  files  of  newspapers 
for  the  true  records  of  Denmark  Vesey 
and  Nat  Turner,  I  have  caught  occasional 
glimpses  of  a  plot  perhaps  more  wide  in  its 
outlines  than  that  of  either,  which  has  lain 
obscure  in  the  darkness  of  half  a  century, 
traceable  only  in  the  political  events  which 
dated  from  it,  and  the  utter  incorrectness  of 
the  scanty  traditions  which  assumed  to  pre 
serve  it.  And  though  researches  in  public 
libraries  have  only  proved  to  me  how  rapidly 
the  materials  for  American  history  are  vanish 
ing, —  since  not  one  of  our  great  institutions 
possessed,  a  few  years  since,  a  file  of  any 
Southern  newspaper  of  the  year  1800,  —  yet 
the  little  which  I  have  gained  may  have  an 
interest  that  makes  it  worth  preserving. 
Three  times,  at  intervals  of  thirty  years, 

185 


186  TRAVELLERS  AND  OUTLAWS 

did  a  wave  of  unutterable  terror  sweep  across 
the  Old  Dominion,  bringing  thoughts  of  agony 
to  every  Virginian  master,  and  of  vague  hope 
to  every  Virginian  slave.  Each  time  did  one 
man's  name  become  a  spell  of  dismay  and  a 
symbol  of  deliverance.  Each  time  did  that 
name  eclipse  its  predecessor,  while  recalling 
it  for  a  moment  to  fresher  memory:  John 
Brown  revived  the  story  of  Nat  Turner,  as 
in  his  day  Nat  Turner  recalled  the  vaster 
schemes  of  Gabriel. 

On  Sept.  8,  1800,  a  Virginia  correspondent 
wrote  thus  to  the  Philadelphia  United  -  States 
Gazette :  — 

"  For  the  week  past,  we  have  been  under 
momentary  expectation  of  a  rising  among  the 
negroes,  who  have  assembled  to  the  number  of 
nine  hundred  or  a  thousand,  and  threatened  to 
massacre  all  the  whites.  They  are  armed  with 
desperate  weapons,  and  secrete  themselves  in 
the  woods.  God  only  knows  our  fate :  we 
have  strong  guards  every  night  under  arms." 

It  was  no  wonder,  if  there  were  foundation 
for  such  rumors.  Liberty  was  the  creed  or  the 


GABRIEL'S  DEFEAT  187 

cant  of  the  day.  France  was  being  disturbed 
by  revolution,  and  England  by  Clarkson.  In 
America,  slavery  was  habitually  recognized  as 
a  misfortune  and  an  error,  only  to  be  palliated 
by  the  nearness  of  its  expected  end.  How 
freely  anti-slavery  pamphlets  had  been  circu 
lated  in  Virginia,  we  know  from  the  priceless 
volumes  collected  and  annotated  by  Wash 
ington,  and  now  preserved  in  the  Boston 
Athenseum.  Jefferson's  "  Notes  on  Virginia," 
itself  an  anti-slavery  tract,  had  passed  through 
seven  editions.  Judge  St.  George  Tucker, 
law-professor  in  William  and  Mary  College, 
had  recently  published  his  noble  work,  "  A 
Dissertation  on  Slavery,  with  a  Proposal  for 
the  Gradual  Abolition  of  it  in  the  State  of 
Virginia."  From  all  this  agitation,  a  slave 
insurrection  was  a  mere  corollary.  With  so 
much  electricity  in  the  air,  a  single  flash  of 
lightning  foreboded  all  the  terrors  of  the  tem 
pest.  Let  but  a  single  armed  negro  be  seen  or 
suspected,  and  at  once,  on  many  a  lonely  plan 
tation,  there  were  trembling  hands  at  work  to 
bar  doors  and  windows  that  seldom  had  been 


188  TRAVELLERS  AND  OUTLAWS 

even  closed  before,  and  there  was  shuddering 
when  a  gray  squirrel  scrambled  over  the  roof, 
or  a  shower  of  walnuts  came  down  clattering 
from  the  overhanging  boughs. 

Early  in  September,  1800,  as  a  certain  Mr. 
Moseley  Sheppard,  of  Henrico  County  in  Vir 
ginia,  was  one  day  sitting  in  his  counting-room, 
two  negroes  knocked  at  the  door,  and  were  let 
in.  They  shut  the  door  themselves,  and  began 
to  unfold  an  insurrectionary  plot,  which  was 
subsequently  repeated  by  one  of  them,  named 
Ben  Woodfolk  or  Woolfolk,  in  presence  of  the 
court,  on  the  15th  of  the  same  month. 

He  stated,  that  about  the  first  of  the  preced 
ing  June,  he  had  been  asked  by  a  negro  named 
Colonel  George  whether  he  would  like  to  be 
made  a  Mason.  He  refused ;  but  George  ulti 
mately  prevailed  on  him  to  have  an  interview 
with  a  certain  leading  man  among  the  blacks, 
named  Gabriel.  Arrived  at  the  place  of  meet 
ing,  he  found  many  persons  assembled,  to  whom 
a  preliminary  oath  was  administered,  that  they 
would  keep  secret  all  which  they  might  hear. 
The  leaders  then  began,  to  the  dismay  of  this 


GABRIEL'S  DEFEAT  189 

witness,  to  allude  to  a  plan  of  insurrection, 
which,  as  they  stated,  was  already  far  advanced 
toward  maturity.  Presently  a  man  named 
Martin,  Gabriel's  brother,  proposed  religious 
services,  caused  the  company  to  be  duly  seated, 
and  began  an  impassioned  exposition  of  Scrip 
ture,  bearing  upon  the  perilous  theme.  The 
Israelites  were  glowingly  portrayed  as  a  type 
of  successful  resistance  to  tyranny ;  and  it  was 
argued,  that  now,  as  then,  God  would  stretch 
forth  his  arm  to  save,  and  would  strengthen  a 
hundred  to  overthrow  a  thousand.  Thus  passed, 
the  witness  stated,  this  preparatory  meeting. 
At  a  subsequent  gathering  the  affair  was 
brought  to  a  point ;  and  the  only  difficult  ques 
tion  was,  whether  to  rise  in  rebellion  upon  a 
certain  Saturday,  or  upon  the  Sunday  following. 
Gabriel  said  that  Saturday  was  the  day  already 
fixed,  and  that  it  must  not  be  altered;  but 
George  was  for  changing  it  to  Sunday,  as  being 
more  convenient  for  the  country  negroes,  who 
could  travel  on  that  day  without  suspicion. 
Gabriel,  however,  said  decisively  that  they  had 
enough  to  carry  Richmond  without  them ;  and 


190  TRAVELLERS  AND  OUTLAWS 

Saturday  was  therefore  retained  as  the  moment 
ous  day. 

This  was  the  confession,  so  far  as  it  is  now 
accessible ;  and  on  the  strength  of  it,  Ben 
Woolfolk  was  promptly  pardoned  by  the  court 
for  all  his  sins,  past,  present,  or  to  come, 
and  they  proceeded  with  their  investigation. 
Of  Gabriel  little  appeared  to  be  known,  ex 
cept  that  he  had  been  the  property  of  Thomas 
Prosser,  a  young  man  who  had  recently  in 
herited  a  plantation  a  few  miles  from  Rich 
mond,  and  who  had  the  reputation  among  his 
neighbors  of  "  behaving  with  great  barbarity  to 
his  slaves."  Gabriel  was,  however,  reported 
to  be  "a  fellow  of  courage  and  intellect  above 
his  rank  in  life,"  to  be  about  twenty-five  years 
of  age,  and  to  be  guiltless  of  the  alphabet. 

Further  inquiry  made  it  appear  that  the 
preparations  of  the  insurgents  were  hardly  ade 
quate  to  any  grand  revolutionary  design,  —  at 
least,  if  they  proposed  to  begin  with  open  war 
fare.  The  commissariat  may  have  been  well 
organized,  for  black  Virginians  are  apt  to  have 
a  prudent  eye  to  the  larder ;  but  the  ordnance 


GABRIEL'S  DEFEAT  191 

department  and  the  treasury  were  as  low  as  if 
Secretary  Floyd  had  been  in  charge  of  them.  A 
slave  called  "Prosser's  Ben"  testified  that  he 
went  with  Gabriel  to  see  Ben  Woolfolk,  who*" 
was  going  to  Caroline  County  to  enlist  men, 
and  that  "  Gabriel  gave  him  three  shillings  for 
himself  and  three  other  negroes,  to  be  ex 
pended  in  recruiting  men."  Their  arms  and 
ammunition,  so  far  as  reported,  consisted  of 
a  peck  of  bullets,  ten  pounds  of  powder,  and 
twelve  scythe-swords,  made  by  Gabriel's 
brother  Solomon,  and  fitted  with  handles  by 
Gabriel  himself.  "These  cutlasses,"  said  sub 
sequently  a  white  eye-witness,  "are  made  of 
scythes  cut  in  two  and  fixed  into  well-turned 
handles.  I  have  never  seen  arms  so  murder 
ous.  Those  who  still  doubt  the  importance 
of  the  conspiracy  which  has  been  so  for 
tunately  frustrated  would  shudder  with  hor 
ror  at  the  sight  of  these  instruments  of 
death."  And  as  it  presently  appeared  that 
a  conspirator  named  Scott  had  astonished  his 
master  by  accidentally  pulling  ten  dollars 
from  a  ragged  pocket  which  seemed  made- 


192  TRAVELLERS  AND  OUTLAWS 

quate  to  the  custody  of  ten  cents,  it  was 
agreed  that  the  plot  might  still  be  danger 
ous,  even  though  the  resources  seemed  limited. 
And  indeed,  as  was  soon  discovered,  the  effec 
tive  weapon  of  the  insurgents  lay  in  the  very 
audacity  of  their  plan.  If  the  current  state 
ments  of  all  the  Virginia  letter-writers  were 
true,  "  nothing  could  have  been  better  con 
trived."  It  was  to  have  taken  effect  on  the  first 
day  of  September.  The  rendezvous  for  the 
blacks  was  to  be  a  brook  six  miles  from  Rich 
mond.  Eleven  hundred  men  were  to  assemble 
there,  and  were  to  be  divided  into  three  columns, 
their  officers  having  been  designated  in  advance. 
All  were  to  march  on  Richmond,  —  then  a  town 
of  eight  thousand  inhabitants,  —  under  cover  of 
night.  The  right  wing  was  instantly  to  seize 
upon  the  penitentiary  building,  just  converted 
into  an  arsenal ;  while  the  left  wing  was  to  take 
possession  of  the  powder-house.  These  two 
columns  were  to  be  armed  chiefly  with  clubs,  as 
their  undertaking  depended  for  success  upon 
surprise,  and  was  expected  to  prevail  without 
hard  fighting.  But  it  was  the  central  force, 


GABRIEL'S  DEFEAT  193 

armed  with  muskets,  cutlasses,  knives,  and 
pikes,  upon  which  the  chief  responsibility 
rested ;  these  men  were  to  enter  the  town  at 
both  ends  simultaneously,  and  begin  a  general 
carnage,  none  being  excepted  save  the  French 
inhabitants,  who  were  supposed  for  some  reason 
to  be  friendly  to  the  negroes.  In  a  very  few 
hours,  it  was  thought,  they  would  have  entire 
control  of  the  metropolis.  And  that  this  hope 
was  not  in  the  least  unreasonable,  was  shown 
by  the  subsequent  confessions  of  weakness  from 
the  whites.  "  They  could  scarcely  have  failed 
of  success,"  wrote  the  Richmond  correspond 
ent  of  the  Boston  Chronicle;  "for,  after  all, 
we  could  only  muster  four  or  five  hundred 
men,  of  whom  not  more  than  thirty  had 
muskets." 

For  the  insurgents,  if  successful,  the  peniten 
tiary  held  several  thousand  stand  of  arms ;  the 
powder-house  was  well  stocked;  the  Capitol 
contained  the  State  treasury  ;  the  mills  would 
give  them  bread ;  the  control  of  the  bridge 
across  James  River  would  keep  off  enemies 
from  beyond.  Thus  secured  and  provided, 


194  TRAVELLERS   AND   OUTLAWS 

they  planned  to  issue  proclamations  summon 
ing  to  their  standard  "  their  fellow-negroes 
and  the  friends  of  humanity  throughout  the 
continent."  In  a  week,  it  was  estimated,  they 
would  have  fifty  thousand  men  on  their  side, 
with  which  force  they  could  easily  possess 
themselves  of  other  towns ;  and,  indeed,  a 
slave  named  John  Scott  —  possibly  the  danger 
ous  possessor  of  the  ten  dollars  —  was  already 
appointed  to  head  the  attack  on  Petersburg. 
But  in  case  of  final  failure,  the  project  included 
a  retreat  to  the  mountains,  with  their  new 
found  property.  John  Brown  was  therefore 
anticipated  by  Gabriel,  sixty  years  before,  in 
believing  the  Virginia  mountains  to  have  been 
"created,  from  the  foundation  of  the  world,  as 
a  place  of  refuge  for  fugitive  slaves." 

These  are  the  statements  of  the  contempo 
rary  witnesses ;  they  are  repeated  in  many 
newspapers  of  the  year  1800,  and  are  in  them 
selves  clear  and  consistent.  Whether  they  are 
on  the  whole  exaggerated  or  under-stated,  it  is 
now  impossible  to  say.  It  is  certain  that  a 
Richmond  paper  of  Sept.  12  (quoted  in  the 


GABRIEL'S   DEFEAT  195 

New -York  G-azette  of  Sept.  18)  declares  that 
"  the  plot  has  been  entirely  exploded,  which 
was  shallow ;  and,  had  the  attempt  been  made 
to  carry  it  into  execution,  but  little  resist 
ance  would  have  been  required  to  render  the 
scheme  entirely  abortive."  But  it  is  neces 
sary  to  remember  that  this  is  no  more  than 
the  Charleston  newspapers  said  at  the  very 
crisis  of  Denmark  Vesey's  formidable  plot. 
"  Last  evening,"  wrote  a  lady  from  Charleston 
in  1822,  "  twenty -five  hundred  of  our  citizens 
were  under  arms  to  guard  our  property  and 
lives.  But  it  is  a  subject  not  to  be  mentioned 
[so  underscored] ;  and  unless  you  hear  of  it 
elsewhere,  say  nothing  about  it."  Thus  it  is 
always  hard  to  know  whether  to  assume  the 
facts  of  an  insurrection  as  above  or  below 
the  estimates.  This  Virginian  excitement  also 
happened  at  a  period  of  intense  political  agita 
tion,  and  was  seized  upon  as  a  boon  by  the 
Federalists.  The  very  article  above  quoted  is 
ironically  headed  "Holy  Insurrection,"  and 
takes  its  motto  from  Jefferson,  with  profuse 
capital  letters :  "  The  Spirit  of  the  Master  is 


196       TRAVELLERS  AND  OUTLAWS 

abating,  that  of  the  Slave  rising  from  the  dust, 
his  condition  mollifying." 

In  view  of  the  political  aspect  thus  given 
to  the  plot,  and  of  its  ingenuity  and  thorough 
ness  likewise,  the  Virginians  were  naturally 
disposed  to  attribute  to  white  men  some  share 
in  it;  and  speculation  presently  began  to  run 
wild.  The  newspapers  were  soon  full  of  theo 
ries,  no  two  being  alike,  and  no  one  credible. 
The  plot  originated,  some  said,  in  certain  hand 
bills  written  by  Jefferson's  friend  Callender, 
then  in  prison  at  Richmond  on  a  charge  of 
sedition ;  these  were  circulated  by  two  French 
negroes,  aided  by  a  "  United  Irishman  "  calling 
himself  a  Methodist  preacher,  and  it  was  in 
consideration  of  these  services  that  no  French 
man  was  to  be  injured  by  the  slaves.  When 
Gabriel  was  arrested,  the  editor  of  the  United- 
States  Gazette  affected  much  diplomatic  sur 
prise  that  no  letters  were  yet  found  upon  his 
person  "  from  Fries,  Gallatin,  or  Duane,  nor 
was  he  at  the  time  of  his  capture  accompanied 
by  any  United  Irishman."  "He,  however, 
acknowledges  that  there  are  others  concerned, 


GABRIEL'S  DEFEAT  197 

and  that  he  is  not  the  principal  instigator." 
All  Federalists  agreed  that  the  Southern 
Democratic  talk  was  constructive  insurrection, 
—  which  it  certainly  was,  —  and  they  painted 
graphic  pictures  of  noisy  "  Jacobins "  over 
their  wine,  and  eager  dusky  listeners  behind 
their  chairs.  "  It  is  evident  that  the  French 
principles  of  liberty  and  equality  have  been 
effused  into  the  minds  of  the  negroes,  and 
that  the  incautious  and  intemperate  use  of  the 
words  by  some  whites  among  us  have  inspired 
them  with  hopes  of  success."  "  While  the  fiery 
Hotspurs  of  the  State  vociferate  their  French 
babble  of  the  natural  equality  of  man,  the 
insulted  negro  will  be  constantly  stimulated 
to  cast  away  his  cords,  and  to  sharpen  his 
pike."  "  It  is,  moreover,  believed,  though  not 
positively  known,  that  a  great  many  of  our 
profligate  and  abandoned  whites  (who  are 
distinguished  by  the  burlesque  appellation  of 
Democrats)  are  implicated  with  the  blacks,  and 
would  have  joined  them  if  they  had  commenced 
their  operations.  .  .  .  The  Jacobin  printers  and 
their  friends  are  panic  -  struck.  Never  was 


198  TRAVELLERS  AND  OUTLAWS 

terror  more  strongly  depicted  in  the  counte 
nances  of  men."  These  extracts  from  three 
different  Federalist  newspapers  show  the  ami 
able  emotions  of  that  side  of  the  house ;  while 
Democratic  Duane,  in  the  Aurora,  could  find 
no  better  repartee  than  to  attribute  the  whole 
trouble  to  the  policy  of  the  administration 
in  renewing  commercial  intercourse  with  San 
Domingo. 

I  have  discovered  in  the  Norfolk  Epitome 
of  the  Times,  for  Oct.  9,  1800,  a  remarkable 
epistle  written  from  Richmond  Jail  by  the 
unfortunate  Callender  himself.  He  indignantly 
denies  the  charges  against  the  Democrats,  of 
complicity  in  dangerous  plots,  boldly  retorting 
them  upon  the  Federalists.  "  An  insurrection 
at  this  critical  moment  by  the  negroes  of  the 
Southern  States  would  have  thrown  €very  thing 
into  confusion,  and  consequently  it  was  to  have 
prevented  the  choice  of  electors  in  the  whole  or 
the  greater  part  of  the  States  to  the  south 
of  the  Potomac.  Such  a  disaster  must  have 
tended  directly  to  injure  the  interests  of  Mr. 
Jefferson,  and  to  promote  the  slender  possibility 


GABRIEL'S  DEFEAT  199 

of  a  second  election  of  Mr.  Adams."  And,  to 
be  sure,  the  United  -  States  Gazette  followed 
up  the  thing  with  a  good,  single-minded  party 
malice  which  cannot  be  surpassed  in  these 
present  days,  ending  in  such  altitudes  of  sub 
lime  coolness  as  the  following :  "  The  insur 
rection  of  the  negroes  in  the  Southern  States, 
which  appears  to  be  organized  on  the  true 
French  plan,  must  be  decisive,  with  every 
reflecting  man  in  those  States,  of  the  election  of 
Mr.  Adams  and  Gen.  Pinckney.  The  military 
skill  and  approved  bravery  of  the  general  must 
be  peculiarly  valuable  to  his  countrymen  at 
these  trying  moments."  Let  us  have  a  military 
Vice-President,  by  all  means,  to  meet  this 
formidable  exigency  of  Gabriel's  peck  of  bull 
ets,  and  this  unexplained  three  shillings  in  the 
pocket  of  "  Prosser's  Ben  "  ! 

But  Gabriel's  campaign  failed,  like  that  of 
the  Federalists  ;  and  the  appointed  day  brought 
disasters  more  fatal  than  even  the  sword  of 
Gen.  Pinckney.  The  affrighted  negroes  de 
clared  that  "the  stars  in  their  courses  fought 
against  Sisera."  The  most  furious  tempest  ever 


200  TRAVELLERS  AND  OUTLAWS 

known  in  Virginia  burst  upon  the  land  that  day, 
instead  of  an  insurrection.  Roads  and  planta 
tions  were  submerged.  Bridges  were  carried 
away.  The  fords,  which  then,  as  now,  were 
the  frequent  substitutes  for  bridges  in  that 
region,  were  rendered  wholly  impassable.  The 
Brook  Swamp,  one  of  the  most  important  stra 
tegic  points  of  the  insurgents,  was  entirely 
inundated,  hopelessly  dividing  Prosser's  farm 
from  Richmond;  the  country  negroes  could  not 
get  in,  nor  those  from  the  city  get  out.  The 
thousand  men  dwindled  to  a  few  hundred,  and 
these  half  paralyzed  by  superstition ;  there  was 
nothing  to  do  but  to  dismiss  them,  and  before 
they  could  re-assemble  they  were  betrayed. 

That  the  greatest  alarm  was  instantly  created 
throughout  the  community,  there  is  no  ques 
tion.  All  the  city  of  Richmond  was  in  arms, 
and  in  all  large  towns  of  the  State  the  night- 
patrol  was  doubled.  It  is  a  little  amusing  to 
find  it  formally  announced,  that  "  the  Governor, 
impressed  with  the  magnitude  of  the  danger, 
has  appointed  for  himself  three  aides-de-camp." 
A  troop  of  United-States  cavalry  was  ordered 


GABRIEL'S   DEFEAT  201 

to  Richmond.  Numerous  arrests  were  made. 
Men  were  convicted  on  one  day,  and  hanged 
on  the  next,  —  five,  six,  ten,  fifteen  at  a  time, 
almost  without  evidence.  Three  hundred  dol 
lars  were  offered  by  Gov.  Monroe  for  the  arrest 
of  Gabriel ;  as  much  more  for  another  chief 
named  Jack  Bowler,  alias  Ditcher ;  whereupon 
Bowler  alias  Ditcher  surrendered  himself,  but 
it  took  some  weeks  to  get  upon  the  track  of 
Gabriel.  He  was  finally  captured  at  Norfolk, 
on  board  a  schooner  just  arrived  from  Rich 
mond,  in  whose  hold  he  had  concealed  himself 
for  eleven  days,  having  thrown  overboard  a 
bayonet  and  bludgeon,  which  were  his  only 
arms.  Crowds  of  people  collected  to  see  him, 
including  many  of  his  own  color.  He  was 
arrested  on  Sept.  24,  convicted  on  Oct.  3,  and 
executed  on  Oct.  7 ;  and  it  is  known  of  him 
further,  only,  that,  like  almost  all  leaders  of 
slave  insurrections,  he  showed  a  courage  which 
his  enemies  could  not  gainsay.  "  When  he  was 
apprehended,  he  manifested  the  greatest  marks 
of  firmness  and  confidence,  showing  not  the 
least  disposition  to  equivocate,  or  screen  himself 


202  TRAVELLERS   AND   OUTLAWS 

from  justice,"  —  but  making  no  confession  that 
could  implicate  any  one  else.  "The  behavior 
of  Gabriel  under  his  misfortunes,"  said  the 
Norfolk  Epitome  of  Sept.  25,  "was  such  as 
might  be  expected  from  a  mind  capable  of 
forming  the  daring  project  which  he  had  con 
ceived."  The  United-States  Gazette  for  Oct.  9 
states,  more  sarcastically,  that  "  the  general  is 
said  to  have  manifested  the  utmost  composure, 
and  with  the  true  spirit  of  heroism  seems  ready 
to  resign  his  high  office,  and  even  his  life, 
rather  than  gratify  the  officious  inquiries  of 
the  Governor." 

Some  of  these  newspapers  suggest  that  the 
authorities  found  it  good  policy  to  omit  the 
statement  made  by  Gabriel,  whatever  it  was. 
At  any  rate,  he  assured  them  that  he  was  by  no 
means  the  sole  instigator  of  the  affair ;  he  could 
name  many,  even  in  Norfolk,  who  were  more 
deeply  concerned.  To  his  brother  Solomon  he 
is  said  to  have  stated  that  the  real  head  of  the 
plot  was  Jack  Bowler.  Still  another  leader  was 
"  Gen.  John  Scott,"  already  mentioned,  the 
slave  of  Mr.  Greenhow,  hired  by  Mr.  McCrea. 


GABRIEL'S   DEFEAT  203 

He  was  captured  by  his  employer  in  Norfolk, 
just  as  he  was  boldly  entering  a  public  convey 
ance  to  escape ;  and  the  Baltimore  Telegraphe 
declared  that  he  had  a  written  paper  directing 
him  to  apply  to  Alexander  Biddenhurst  or 
Weddenhurst  in  Philadelphia,  "corner  of  Coats 
Alley  and  Budd  Street,  who  would  supply 
his  needs."  What  became  of  this  military 
individual,  or  of  his  Philadelphia  sympathizers, 
does  not  appear.  But  it  was  noticed,  as 
usually  happens  in  such  cases,  that  all  the  in 
surgents  had  previously  passed  for  saints.  "  It 
consists  within  my  knowledge,"  says  one  letter- 
writer,  "  that  many  of  these  wretches  who  were  or 
would  have  been  partakers  in  the  plot  have  been 
treated  with  the  utmost  tenderness  by  their  mas 
ters,  and  were  more  like  children  than  slaves." 

These  appear  to  be  all  the  details  now  acces 
sible  of  this  once  famous  plot.  They  were  not 
very  freely  published,  even  at  the  time.  "  The 
minutiae  of  the  conspiracy  have  not  been 
detailed  to  the  public,"  said  the  Salem  (Mass.) 
Gazette  of  Oct.  7,  "  and  perhaps,  through  a 
mistaken  notion  of  prudence  and  policy,  will 


204  TRAVELLERS   AND   OUTLAWS 

not  be  detailed  in  the  Richmond  papers."  The 
New  -  York  Commercial  Advertiser  of  Oct.  13 
was  still  more  explicit.  "  The  trials  of  the 
negroes  concerned  in  the  late  insurrection  are 
suspended  until  the  opinions  of  the  Legislature 
can  be  had  on  the  subject.  This  measure  is 
said  to  be  owing  to  the  immense  numbers  who 
are  interested  in  the  plot,  whose  death,  should 
they  all  be  found  guilty  and  be  executed,  will 
nearly  produce  the  annihilation  of  the  blacks 
in  this  part  of  the  country."  And  in  the  next 
issue  of  the  same  journal  a  Richmond  corre 
spondent  makes  a  similar  statement,  with  the 
following  addition  :  "  A  conditional  amnesty  is 
perhaps  expected.  At  the  next  session  of  the 
Legislature  [of  Virginia],  they  took  into  consid 
eration  the  subject  referred  to  them,  in  secret 
session,  with  closed  doors.  The  whole  result 
of  their  deliberations  has  never  yet  been  made 
piiblic,  as  the  injunction  of  secrecy  has  never 
been  removed.  To  satisfy  the  court,  the  public, 
and  themselves,  they  had  a  task  so  difficult  to 
perform,  that  it  is  not  surprising  that  their 
deliberations  were  in  secret." 


GABRIEL'S   DEFEAT  205 

It  is  a  matter  of  historical  interest  to  know 
that  in  these  mysterious  sessions  lay  the  germs 
of  the  American  Colonization  Society.  A 
correspondence  was  at  once  secretly  commenced 
between  the  Governor  of  Virginia  and  the 
President  of  the  United  States,  with  a  view  to 
securing  a  grant  of  land  whither  troublesome 
slaves  might  be  banished.  Nothing  came  of  it 
then;  but  in  1801,  1802,  and  1804,  these 
attempts  were  renewed.  And  finally,  on  Jan. 
22,  1805,  the  following  vote  was  passed,  still 
in  secret  session :  "  Resolved,  that  the  Senators 
of  this  State  in  the  Congress  of  the  United 
States  be  instructed,  and  the  Representatives 
be  requested,  to  use  their  best  efforts  for  the 
obtaining  from  the  General  Government  a 
competent  portion  of  territory  in  the  State  of 
Louisiana,  to  be  appropriated  to  the  residence 
of  such  people  of  color  as  have  been  or  shall  be 
emancipated,  or  hereafter  may  become  danger 
ous  to  the  public  safety,"  etc.  But  of  all  these 
efforts  nothing  was  known  till  their  record  was 
accidentally  discovered  by  Charles  Fenton 
Mercer  in  1816.  He  at  once  brought  the  mat- 


206  TRAVELLERS  AND  OUTLAWS 

ter  to  light,  and  moved  a  similar  resolution  in 
the  Virginia  Legislature ;  it  was  almost  unani 
mously  adopted,  and  the  first  formal  meeting 
of  the  Colonization  Society,  in  1817,  was  called 
uin  aid  "  of  this  Virginia  movement.  But  the 
whole  correspondence  was  never  made  public 
until  the  Nat  Turner  insurrection  of  1831 
recalled  the  previous  excitement ;  and  these 
papers  were  demanded  by  Mr.  Summers,  a 
member  of  the  Legislature,  who  described  them 
as  "  having  originated  in  a  convulsion  similar  to 
that  which  had  recently,  but  more  terribly, 
occurred." 

But  neither  these  subsequent  papers,  nor  any 
documents  which  now  appear  accessible,  can 
supply  any  authentic  or  trustworthy  evidence 
as  to  the  real  extent  of  the  earlier  plot.  It 
certainly  was  not  confined  to  the  mere  envi 
rons  of  Richmond.  The  Norfolk  Epitome  of 
Oct.  6  states  that  on  the  6th  and  7th  of  the 
previous  month  one  hundred  and  fifty  blacks, 
including  twenty  from  Norfolk,  were  assem 
bled  near  Whitlock's  Mills  in  Suffolk  County, 
and  remained  in  the  neighborhood  till  the 


GABRIEL'S   DEFEAT  207 

failure  of  the  Richmond  plan  became  known. 
Petersburg  newspapers  also  had  letters  con 
taining  similar  tales.  Then  the  alarm  spread 
more  widely.  Near  Edenton,  N.C.,  there 
was  undoubtedly  a  real  insurrection,  though 
promptly  suppressed;  and  many  families  ulti 
mately  removed  from  that  vicinity  in  conse 
quence.  In  Charleston,  S.C.,  there  was  still 
greater  excitement,  if  the  contemporary  press 
may  be  trusted ,  it  was  reported  that  the  free 
holders  had  been  summoned  to  appear  in  arms, 
on  penalty  of  a  fine  of  fifteen  pounds,  which 
many  preferred  to  pay  rather  than  risk  taking 
the  fever  which  then  prevailed.  These  reports 
were,  however,  zealously  contradicted  in  letters 
from  Charleston,  dated  Oct.  8;  and  the  Charles 
ton  newspapers  up  to  Sept.  17  had  certainly 
contained  no  reference  to  any  especial  excite 
ment.  This  alone  might  not  settle  the  fact,  for 
reasons  already  given.  But  the  omission  of  any 
such  affair  from  the  valuable  pamphlet  pub 
lished  in  1822  by  Edwin  C.  Holland,  contain 
ing  reminiscences  of  insurrections  in  South 
Carolina,  is  presumptive  evidence  that  no  very 
extended  agitation  occurred. 


208  TRAVELLERS  AND   OUTLAWS 

But  wherever  there  was  a  black  population, 
slave  or  emancipated,  men's  startled  consciences 
made  cowards  of  them  all,  and  recognized  the 
negro  as  a  dangerous  man,  because  an  injured 
one.  In  Philadelphia  it  was  seriously  proposed 
to  prohibit  the  use  of  sky-rockets  for  a  time, 
because  they  had  been  employed  as  signals  in 
San  Domingo.  "Even  in  Boston,"  said  the 
New- York  Daily  Advertiser  of  Sept.  20,  "fears 
are  expressed,  and  measures  of  prevention 
adopted."  This  probably  refers  to  a  singular 
advertisement  which  appeared  in  some  of  the 
Boston  newspapers  on  Sept.  16,  and  runs  as 

follows :  — 

"NOTICE  TO  BLACKS. 

"  The  officers  of  the  police  having  made  returns  to  the 
subscriber  of  the  names  of  the  following  persons  who 
are  Africans  or  negroes,  not  subjects  of  the  Emperor 
of  Morocco  nor  citizens  of  any  of  the  United  States,  the 
same  are  hereby  warned  and  directed  to  depart  out  of 
this  Commonwealth  before  the  tenth  day  of  October 
next,  as  they  would  avoid  the  pains  and  penalties  of 
the  law  in  that  case  provided,  which  was  passed  by  the 
Legislature  March  26,  1788. 

"CHARLES  BULFINCH,  Superintendent. 

"By  order  and  direction  of  the  Selectmen." 


GABRIEL'S  DEFEAT  209 

The  names  annexed  are  about  three  hundred, 
with  the  places  of  their  supposed  origin,  and 
they  occupy  a  column  of  the  paper.  So  at 
least  asserts  the  United-States  Gazette  of  Sept. 
23.  "It  seems  probable,"  adds  the  editor, 
"from  the  nature  of  the  notice,  that  some  sus 
picion  of  the  design  of  the  negroes  is  enter 
tained  ;  and  we  regret  to  say  there  is  too  much 
cause."  The  law  of  1788  above  mentioned 
was  "An  Act  for  suppressing  rogues,  vaga 
bonds,  and  the  like,"  which  forbade  all  persons 
of  African  descent,  unless  citizens  of  some  one  of 
the  United  States  or  subjects  of  the  Emperor 
of  Morocco,  from  remaining  more  than  two 
months  within  the  Commonwealth,  on  penalty 
of  imprisonment  and  hard  labor.  This  singular 
statute  remained  unrepealed  until  1834. 

Amid  the  general  harmony  in  the  contem 
porary  narratives  of  Gabriel's  insurrection,  it 
would  be  improper  to  pass  by  one  exceptional 
legend,  which  by  some  singular  fatality  has 
obtained  more  circulation  than  all  the  true 
accounts  put  together.  I  can  trace  it  no  farther 
back  than  Nat  Turner's  time,  when  it  was  pub- 


210  TRAVELLERS  AND   OUTLAWS 

lished  in  the  Albany  Evening  Journal;  thence 
transferred  to  the  Liberator  of  Sept.  17,  1831, 
and  many  other  newspapers ;  then  refuted  in 
detail  by  the  Richmond  Enquirer  of  Oct.  21 ; 
then  resuscitated  in  the  John-Brown  epoch 
by  the  Philadelphia  Press,  and  extensively 
copied.  It  is  fresh,  spirited,  and  full  of  graphic 
and  interesting  details,  nearly  every  one  of 
which  is  altogether  false. 

Gabriel  in  this  narrative  becomes  a  rather 
mythical  being,  of  vast  abilities  and  life-long 
preparations.  He  bought  his  freedom,  it  is 
stated,  at  the  age  of  twenty-one,  and  then 
travelled  all  over  the  Southern  States,  enlisting 
confederates  and  forming  stores  of  arms.  At 
length  his  plot  was  discovered,  in  consequence 
of  three  negroes  having  been  seen  riding  out 
of  a  stable-yard  together;  and  the  Governor 
offered  a  reward  of  ten  thousand  dollars  for 
further  information,  to  which  a  Richmond  gen 
tleman  added  as  much  more.  Gabriel  con 
cealed  himself  on  board  the  "  Sally  Ann,"  a 
vessel  just  sailing  for  San  Domingo,  and  was 
revealed  by  his  little  nephew,  whom  he  had 


GABRIEL'S  DEFEAT  211 

sent  for  a  jug  of  rum.  Finally,  the  narrative 
puts  an  eloquent  dying  speech  into  Gabriel's 
mouth,  and,  to  give  a  properly  tragic  consum 
mation,  causes  him  to  be  torn  to  death  by  four 
wild  horses.  The  last  item  is,  however,  omitted 
in  the  more  recent  reprints  of  the  story. 

Every  one  of  these  statements  appears  to 
be  absolutely  erroneous.  Gabriel  lived  and 
died  a  slave,  and  was  probably  never  out  of 
Virginia.  His  plot  was  voluntarily  revealed 
by  accomplices.  The  rewards  offered  for  his 
arrest  amounted  to  three  hundred  dollars  only. 
He  concealed  himself  on  board  the  schooner 
"  Mary,"  bound  to  Norfolk,  and  was  discovered 
by  the  police.  He  died  on  the  gallows,  with 
ten  associates,  having  made  no  address  to  the 
court  or  the  people.  All  the  errors  of  the 
statement  were  contradicted  when  it  was  first 
made  public,  but  they  have  proved  very  hard 
to  kill. 

Some  of  these  events  were  embodied  in  a 
song  bearing  the  same  title  with  this  essay, 
"  Gabriel's  Defeat,"  and  set  to  a  tune  of  the 
same  name,  both  being  composed  by  a  colored 


212  TRAVELLERS  AND   OUTLAWS 

man.  Several  witnesses  have  assured  me  of 
having  heard  this  sung  in  Virginia,  as  a  favorite 
air  at  the  dances  of  the  white  people,  as  well 
as  in  the  huts  of  the  slaves.  It  is  surely  one 
of  history's  strange  parallelisms,  that  this  fatal 
enterprise,  like  that  of  John  Brown  afterwards, 
should  thus  have  embalmed  itself  in  music. 
And  twenty-two  years  after  these  events,  their 
impression  still  remained  vivid  enough  for 
Benjamin  Lundy,  in  Tennessee,  to  write :  "So 
well  had  they  matured  their  plot,  and  so  com 
pletely  had  they  organized  their  system  of 
operations,  that  nothing  but  a  seemingly  mirac 
ulous  intervention  of  the  arm  of  Providence 
was  supposed  to  have  been  capable  of  saving 
the  city  from  pillage  and  flames,  and  the  inhab 
itants  thereof  from  butchery.  So  dreadful  was 
the  alarm  and  so  great  the  consternation  pro 
duced  on  this  occasion,  that  a  member  of  Con 
gress  from  that  State  was  some  time  after  heard 
to  express  himself  in  his  place  as  follows: 
'  The  night-bell  is  never  heard  to  toll  in  the 
city  of  Richmond,  but  the  anxious  mother 


GABRIEL'S  DEFEAT  213 

presses  her  infant  more  closely  to  her  bosom.' ' 
The  Congressman  was  John  Randolph  of  Roa- 
noke,  and  it  was  Gabriel  who  had  taught  him 
the  lesson. 

And  longer  than  the  melancholy  life  of  that 
wayward  statesman,  —  down  even  to  the  begin 
ning  of  the  American  civil  war,  —  there  lin 
gered  in  Richmond  a  memorial  of  those  days, 
most  peculiar  and  most  instructive.  Before  the 
days  of  secession,  when  the  Northern  traveller  in 
Virginia,  after  traversing  for  weary  leagues  its 
miry  ways,  its  desolate  fields,  and  its  flowery 
forests,  rode  at  last  into  its  metropolis,  he  was 
sure  to  be  guided  ere  long  to  visit  its  stately 
Capitol,  modelled  by  Jefferson,  when  French 
minister,  from  the  Maison  Carrie.  Standing 
before  it,  he  might  admire  undisturbed  the 
Grecian  outline  of  its  exterior;  but  he  found 
himself  forbidden  to  enter,  save  by  passing  an 
armed  and  uniformed  sentinel  at  the  doorway. 
No  other  State  of  the  Union  then  found  it 
necessary  to  protect  its  State  House  by  a  per 
manent  cordon  of  bayonets.  Yet  there  for  half 


214  TRAVELLERS   AND  OUTLAWS 

a  century  stood  sentinel  the  "  Public  Guard  " 
of  Virginia;  and  when  the  traveller  asked 
the  origin  of  the  precaution,  he  was  told 
that  it  was  the  lasting  memorial  of  Gabriel's 
Defeat. 


DENMARK   VESEY 

Saturday  afternoon,  May  25,  1822,  a 
slave  named  Devany,  belonging  to  Col. 
Prioleau  of  Charleston,  S.C.,  was  sent  to 
market  by  his  mistress,  —  the  colonel  being 
absent  in  the  country.  After  doing  his  errands, 
he  strolled  down  upon  the  wharves  in  the 
enjoyment  of  that  magnificent  wealth  of  lei 
sure  which  usually  characterized  the  former 
"house-servant"  of  the  South,  when  beyond 
hail  of  the  street-door.  He  presently  noticed  a 
small  vessel  lying  in  the  stream,  with  a  peculiar 
flag  flying ;  and  while  looking  at  it,  he  was 
accosted  by  a  slave  named  William,  belonging 
to  Mr.  John  Paul,  who  remarked  to  him,  "  I 
have  often  seen  a  flag  with  the  number  76, 
but  never  one  with  the  number  96  upon  it  be 
fore."  After  some  further  conversation  on  this 
trifling  point,  William  suddenly  inquired,  "  Do 

215 


216  TRAVELLERS  AND  OUTLAWS 

you  know  that  something  serious  is  about  to 
take  place?"  Devany  disclaiming  the  knowl 
edge  of  any  graver  impending  crisis  than  the 
family  dinner,  the  other  went  on  to  inform 
him  that  many  of  the  slaves  were  "  determined 
to  right  themselves."  "We  are  determined," 
he  added,  "to  shake  off  our  bondage,  and  for 
that  purpose  we  stand  on  a  good  foundation  ; 
many  have  joined,  and  if  you  will  go  with  me, 
I  will  show  you  the  man  who  has  the  list  of 
names,  and  who  will  take  yours  down." 

This  startling  disclosure  was  quite  too  much 
for  Devany :  he  was  made  of  the  wrong  mate 
rial  for  so  daring  a  project;  his  genius  was 
culinary,  not  revolutionary.  Giving  some 
excuse  for  breaking  off  the  conversation,  he 
went  forthwith  to  consult  a  free  colored  man, 
named  Pensil  or  Pencell,  who  advised  him  to 
warn  his  master  instantly.  So  he  lost  no  time 
in  telling  the  secret  to  his  mistress  and  her 
young  son ;  and  on  the  return  of  Col.  Prioleau 
from  the  country,  five  days  afterward,  it  was 
at  once  revealed  to  him.  Within  an  hour  or 
two  he  stated  the  facts  to  Mr.  Hamilton,  the 


DENMARK  VESEY  217 

intendant,  or,  as  he  would  now  be  called, 
mayor;  Mr.  Hamilton  at  once  summoned  the 
corporation,  and  by  five  o'clock  Devany  and 
William  were  under  examination. 

This  was  the  first  warning  of  a  plot  which 
ultimately  filled  Charleston  with  terror.  And 
yet  so  thorough  and  so  secret  was  the  organiza 
tion  of  the  negroes,  that  a  fortnight  passed 
without  yielding  the  slightest  information 
beyond  the  very  little  which  was  obtained 
from  these  two.  William  Paul  was,  indeed, 
put  in  confinement,  and  soon  gave  evidence 
inculpating  two  slaA^es  as  his  employers,  — 
Mingo  Harth  and  Peter  Poyas.  But  these 
men,  when  arrested,  behaved  with  such  perfect 
coolness,  and  treated  the  charge  with  such 
entire  levity ;  —  their  trunks  and  premises, 
when  searched,  were  so  innocent  of  all  alarming 
contents ;  —  that  they  were  soon  discharged  by 
the  wardens.  William  Paul  at  length  became 
alarmed  for  his  own  safety,  and  began  to  let 
out  further  facts  piecemeal,  and  to  inculpate 
other  men.  But  some  of  those  very  men  came 
voluntarily  to  the  intendant,  on  hearing  that 


218  TRAVELLERS   AND   OUTLAWS 

they  were  suspected,  and  indignantly  offered 
themselves  for  examination.  Puzzled  and 
bewildered,  the  municipal  government  kept 
the  thing  as  secret  as  possible,  placed  the  city 
guard  in  an  efficient  condition,  provided  sixteen 
hundred  rounds  of  ball  cartridges,  and  ordered 
the  sentinels  and  patrols  to  be  armed  with 
loaded  muskets.  "  Such  had  been  our  fancied 
security,  that  the  guard  had  previously  gone 
on  duty  without  muskets,  and  with  only 
sheathed  bayonets  and  bludgeons." 

It  has  since  been  asserted,  though  perhaps 
on  questionable  authority,  that  the  Secretary  of 
War  was  informed  of  the  plot,  even  including 
some  details  of  the  plan  and  the  leader's  name, 
before  it  was  known  in  Charleston.  If  so,  he 
utterly  disregarded  it ;  and,  indeed,  so  well  did 
the  negroes  play  their  part,  that  the  whole 
report  was  eventually  disbelieved,  while  —  as 
was  afterwards  proved  —  they  went  on  to  com 
plete  their  secret  organization,  and  hastened  by 
a  fortnight  the  appointed  day  of  attack.  Un 
fortunately  for  their  plans,  however,  another 
betrayal  took  place  at  the  very  last  moment, 


DENMARK   VESEY  219 

from  a  different  direction.  A  class-leader  in  a 
Methodist  church  had  been  persuaded  or  bribed 
by  his  master  to  procure  further  disclosures. 
He  at  length  came  and  stated,  that,  about 
three  months  before,  a  man  named  Rolla, 
slave  of  Gov.  Bennett,  had  communicated  to 
a  friend  of  his  the  fact  of  an  intended  insur 
rection,  and  had  said  that  the  time  fixed  for 
the  outbreak  was  the  following  Sunday  night, 
June  16.  As  this  conversation  took  place  on 
Friday,  it  gave  but  a  very  short  time  for  the 
city  authorities  to  act,  especially  as  they  wished 
neither  to  endanger  the  city  nor  to  alarm  it. 

Yet  so  cautiously  was  the  game  played  on 
both  sides  that  the  whole  thing  was  still  kept 
a  secret  from  the  Charleston  public  ;  and  some 
members  of  the  city  government  did  not  fully 
appreciate  their  danger  till  they  had  passed  it. 
"  The  whole  was  concealed,"  wrote  the  governor 
afterwards,  "  until  the  time  came ;  but  secret 
preparations  were  made.  Saturday  night  and 
Sunday  morning  passed  without  demonstra 
tions  ;  doubts  were  excited,  and  counter  orders 
issued  for  diminishing  the  guard."  It  after- 


220  TRAVELLERS   AND   OUTLAWS 

wards  proved  that  these  preparations  showed 
to  the  slaves  that  their  plot  was  betrayed,  and 
so  saved  the  city  without  public  alarm.  News 
paper  correspondence  soon  was  full  of  the 
story,  each  informant  of  course  hinting  plainly 
that  he  had  been  behind  the  scenes  all  along, 
and  had  withheld  it  only  to  gratify  the  authori 
ties  in  their  policy  of  silence.  It  was  "  now 
no  longer  a  secret,"  they  wrote  ;  adding,  that, 
for  five  or  six  weeks,  but  little  attention  had 
been  paid  by  the  community  to  these  rumors, 
the  city  council  having  kept  it  carefully  to 
themselves  until  a  number  of  suspicious  slaves 
had  been  arrested.  This  refers  to  ten  prisoners 
who  were  seized  on  June  18,  an  arrest  which 
killed  the  plot,  and  left  only  the  terrors  of 
what  might  have  been.  The  investigation, 
thus  publicly  commenced,  soon  revealed  a  free 
colored  man  named  Denmark  Vesey  as  the 
leader  of  the  enterprise,  —  among  his  chief 
coadjutors  being  that  innocent  Peter  and  that 
unsuspecting  Mingo  who  had  been  examined 
and  discharged  nearly  three  weeks  before. 
It  is  matter  of  demonstration,  that,  but  for 


DENMARK   VESEY  221 

the  military  preparations  on  the  appointed 
Sunday  night,  the  attempt  would  have  been 
made.  The  ringleaders  had  actually  met  for 
their  final  arrangements,  when,  by  comparing 
notes,  they  found  themselves  foiled ;  and  within 
another  week  they  were  prisoners  on  trial. 
Nevertheless,  the  plot  which  they  had  laid  was 
the  most  elaborate  insurrectionary  project  ever 
formed  by  American  slaves,  and  came  the  near 
est  to  a  terrible  success.  In  boldness  of  con 
ception  and  thoroughness  of  organization  there 
has  been  nothing  to  compare  with  it ;  and  it  is 
worth  while  to  dwell  somewhat  upon  its  details, 
first  introducing  the  dramatis  personce. 

Denmark  Vesey  had  come  very  near  figuring 
as  a  revolutionist  in  Hayti,  instead  of  South 
Carolina.  Capt.  Vesey,  an  old  resident  of 
Charleston,  commanded  a  ship  that  traded 
between  St.  Thomas  and  Cape  Fran^ais,  during 
our  Revolutionary  War,  in  the  slave-transporta 
tion  line.  In  the  year  1781  he  took  on  board  a 
cargo  of  three  hundred  and  ninety  slaves,  and 
sailed  for  the  Cape.  On  the  passage,  he  and 
his  officers  were  much  attracted  by  the  beauty 


222  TRAVELLERS  AND  OUTLAWS 

and  intelligence  of  a  boy  of  fourteen,  whom 
they  unanimously  adopted  into  the  cabin  as  a 
pet.  They  gave  him  new  clothes,  and  a  new 
name,  Telemaque,  which  was  afterwards  grad 
ually  corrupted  into  Telmak  and  Denmark. 
They  amused  themselves  with  him  until  their 
arrival  at  Cape  Frangais,  and  then,  "  having 
no  use  for  the  boy,"  sold  their  pet  as  if  he  had 
been  a  macaw  or  a  monkey.  Capt.  Vesey 
sailed  for  St.  Thomas ;  and,  presently  making 
another  trip  to  Cape  Frangais,  was  surprised 
to  hear  from  his  consignee  that  Telemaque 
would  be  returned  on  his  hands  as  being 
"  unsound,"  —  not  in  theology  nor  in  morals, 
but  in  body,  —  subject  to  epileptic  fits,  in  fact. 
According  to  the  custom  of  that  place,  the 
boy  was  examined  by  the  city  physician,  who 
required  Capt.  Vesey  to  take  him  back;  and 
Denmark  served  him  faithfully,  with  no  trouble 
from  epilepsy,  for  twenty  years,  travelling  all 
over  the  world  with  him,  and  learning  to  speak 
various  languages.  In  1800  he  drew  a  prize  of 
fifteen  hundred  dollars  in  the  East  Bay-street 
Lottery,  with  which  he  bought  his  freedom 


DENMARK  VESEY  223 

from  his  master  for  six  hundred  dollars,  — 
much  less  than  his  market  value.  From  that 
time,  the  official  report  says,  he  worked  as  a 
carpenter  in  Charleston,  distinguished  for  physi 
cal  strength  and  energy.  "  Among  those  of  his 
color  he  was  looked  up  to  with  awe  and  respect. 
His  temper  was  impetuous  and  domineering  in 
the  extreme,  qualifying  him  for  the  despotic 
rule  of  which  he  was  ambitious.  All  his  pas 
sions  were  ungovernable  and  savage ;  and  to 
his  numerous  wives  and  children  he  displayed 
the  haughty  and  capricious  cruelty  of  an  East 
ern  bashaw." 

"For  several  years  before  he  disclosed  his 
intentions  to  any  one,  he  appears  to  have  been 
constantly  and  assiduously  engaged  in  endeav 
oring  to  imbitter  the  minds  of  the  colored  popu 
lation  against  the  white.  He  rendered  himself 
perfectly  familiar  with  all  those  parts  of  the 
Scriptures  which  he  thought  he  could  pervert 
to  his  purpose,  and  would  readily  quote  them 
to  prove  that  slavery  was  contrary  to  the 
laws  of  God ;  that  slaves  were  bound  to 
attempt  their  emancipation,  however  shocking 


224  TRAVELLERS  AND   OUTLAWS 

and  bloody  might  be  the  consequences ;  and 
that  such  efforts  would  not  only  be  pleasing 
to  the  Almighty,  but  were  absolutely  enjoined, 
and  their  success  predicted,  in  the  Scriptures. 
His  favorite  texts  when  he  addressed  those  of 
his  own  color  were  Zech.  xiv.  1-3,  and  Josh, 
vi.  21 ;  and  in  all  his  conversations  he  identi 
fied  their  situation  with  that  of  the  Israelites. 
The  number  of  inflammatory  pamphlets  on 
slavery  brought  into  Charleston  from  some  of 
our  sister  States  within  the  last  four  years 
(and  once  from  Sierra  Leone),  and  distributed 
amongst  the  colored  population  of  the  city, 
for  which  there  was  a  great  facility,  in  conse 
quence  of  the  unrestricted  intercourse  allowed 
to  persons  of  color  between  the  different  States 
in  the  Union,  and  the  speeches  in  Congress 
of  those  opposed  to  the  admission  of  Missouri 
into  the  Union,  perhaps  garbled  and  misrepre 
sented,  furnished  him  with  ample  means  for 
inflaming  the  minds  of  the  colored  population 
of  the  State  ;  and  by  distorting  certain  parts 
of  those  speeches,  or  selecting  from  them 
particular  passages,  he  persuaded  but  too  many 


DENMARK  VESEY  225 

that  Congress  had  actually  declared  them  free, 
and  that  they  were  held  in  bondage  contrary 
to  the  laws  of  the  land.  Even  whilst  walking 
through  the  streets  in  company  with  another, 
he  was  not  idle ;  for  if  his  companion  bowed 
to  a  white  person,  he  would  rebuke  him,  and 
observe  that  all  men  were  born  equal,  and  that 
he  was  surprised  that  any  one  would  degrade 
himself  by  such  conduct ;  that  he  would  never 
cringe  to  the  whites,  nor  ought  any  one  who 
had  the  feelings  of  a  man.  When  answered, 
4  We  are  slaves,1  he  would  sarcastically  and 
indignantly  reply,  '  You  deserve  to  remain 
slaves ; '  and  if  he  were  further  asked,  '  What 
can  we  do  ? '  he  would  remark,  4  Go  and  buy  a 
spelling-book,  and  read  the  fable  of  Hercules 
and  the  Wagoner,'  which  he  would  then  repeat, 
and  apply  it  to  their  situation.  He  also  sought 
every  opportunity  of  entering  into  conversa 
tion  with  white  persons,  when  they  could  be 
overheard  by  negroes  near  by,  especially  in 
grog-shops,  —  during  which  conversation  he 
would  artfully  introduce  some  bold  remark  on 
slavery ;  and  sometimes,  when,  from  the  char- 


226  TRAVELLERS   AND   OUTLAWS 

acter  he  was  conversing  with,  he  found  he 
might  still  be  bolder,  he  would  go  so  far,  that, 
had  not  his  declarations  in  such  situations  been 
clearly  proved,  they  would  scarcely  have  been 
credited.  He  continued  this  course  until  some 
time  after  the  commencement  of  the  last 
winter ;  by  which  time  he  had  not  only 
obtained  incredible  influence  amongst  persons 
of  color,  but  many  feared  him  more  than  their 
owners,  and,  one  of  them  declared,  even  more 
than  his  God." 

It  was  proved  against  him,  that  his  house 
had  been  the  principal  place  of  meeting  for 
the  conspirators,  that  all  the  others  habitually 
referred  to  him  as  the  leader,  and  that  he  had 
shown  great  address  in  dealing  with  different 
temperaments  and  overcoming  a  variety  of 
scruples.  One  witness  testified  that  Vesey  had 
read  to  him  from  the  Bible  about  the  deliver 
ance  of  the  children  of  Israel;  another,  that 
he  had  read  to  him  a  speech  which  had  been 
delivered  "  in  Congress  by  a  Mr.  King  "  on  the 
subject  of  slavery,  and  Vesey  had  said  that 
"this  Mr.  King  was  the  black  man's  friend; 


DENMARK  VESEY  227 

that  he,  Mr.  King,  had  declared  he  would  con 
tinue  to  speak,  write,  and  publish  pamphlets 
against  slavery  the  longest  day  he  lived,  until 
the  Southern  States  consented  to  emancipate 
their  slaves,  for  that  slavery  was  a  great  dis 
grace  to  the  country."  But  among  all  the 
reports  there  are  only  two  sentences  which 
really  reveal  the  secret  soul  of  Denmark  Vesey, 
and  show  his  impulses  and  motives.  "  He  said 
he  did  not  go  with  Creighton  to  Africa,  because 
he  had  not  a  will ;  he  wanted  to  stay  and  see 
what  he  could  do  for  his  fellow-creatures." 
The  other  takes  us  still  nearer  home.  Monday 
Gell  stated  in  his  confession,  that  Vesey,  on 
first  broaching  the  plan  to  him,  said  "he  was 
satisfied  with  his  own  condition,  being  free ; 
but,  as  all  his  children  were  slaves,  he  wished 
to  see  what  could  be  done  for  them." 

It  is  strange  to  turn  from  this  simple  state 
ment  of  a  perhaps  intelligent  preference,  on 
the  part  of  a  parent,  for  seeing  his  offspring  in 
a  condition  of  freedom,  to  the  naive  astonish 
ment  of  his  judges.  "  It  is  difficult  to  imagine," 
says  the  sentence  finally  passed  on  Denmark 


228  TRAVELLERS  AND   OUTLAWS 

Vesey,  "  what  infatuation  could  have  prompted 
you  to  attempt  an  enterprise  so  wild  and 
visionary.  You  were  a  free  man,  comparatively 
wealthy,  and  enjoyed  every  comfort  compatible 
with  your  situation.  You  had,  therefore,  much 
to  risk  and  little  to  gain."  Yet  one  witness 
testified :  "  Vesey  said  the  negroes  were  living 
such  an  abominable  life,  they  ought  to  rise. 
I  said,  I  was  living  well ;  he  said,  though  I  was, 
others  were  not,  and  that  'twas  such  fools  as 
I  that  were  in  the  way  and  would  not  help 
them,  and  that  after  all  things  were  well  he 
would  mark  me."  "  His  general  conversation," 
said  another  witness,  a  white  boy,  "  was  about 
religion,  which  he  would  apply  to  slavery ;  as, 
for  instance,  he  would  speak  of  the  creation 
of  the  world,  in  which  he  would  say  all  men 
had  equal  rights,  blacks  as  well  as  whites,  etc. ; 
all  his  religious  remarks  were  mingled  with 
slavery."  And  the  firmness  of  this  purpose 
did  not  leave  him,  even  after  the  betrayal  of 
his  cherished  plans.  "  After  the  plot  was  dis 
covered,"  said  Monday  Gell,  in  his  confession, 
"  Vesey  said  it  was  all  over,  unless  an  attempt 


DENMARK  VESEY  229 

were  made  to  rescue  those  who  might  be  con 
demned,  by  rushing  on  the  .people  and  saving 
the  prisoners,  or  all  dying  together." 

The  only  person  to  divide  with  Vesey  the 
claim  of  leadership  was  Peter  Poyas.  Vesey 
was  the  missionary  of  the  cause,  but  Peter  was 
the  organizing  mind.  He  kept  the  register 
of  "candidates,"  and  decided  who  should  or 
should  not  be  enrolled.  "We  can't  live  so," 
he  often  reminded  his  confederates  ;  "  we  must 
break  the  yoke."  "  God  has  a  hand  in  it ;  we 
have  been  meeting  for  four  years,  and  are  not 
yet  betrayed."  Peter  was  a  ship-carpenter,  and 
a  slave  of  great  value.  He  was  to  be  the 
military  leader.  His  plans  showed  some  natural 
generalship :  he  arranged  the  night-attack ;  he 
planned  the  enrolment  of  a  mounted  troop  to 
scour  the  streets ;  and  he  had  a  list  of  all  the 
shops  where  arms  and  ammunition  were  kept 
for  sale.  He  voluntarily  undertook  the  man 
agement  of  the  most  difficult  part  of  the  enter 
prise,  —  the  capture  of  the  main  guard-house, 
—  and  had  pledged  himself  to  advance  alone 
and  surprise  the  sentinel.  He  was  said  to  have 


230  TRAVELLERS  AND  OUTLAWS 

a  magnetism  in  his  eyes,  of  which  his  confed 
erates  stood  in  great  awe ;  if  he  once  got  his 
eye  upon  a  man,  there  was  no  resisting  it. 
A  white  witness  has  since  narrated,  that,  after 
his  arrest,  he  was  chained  to  the  floor  in  a 
cell,  with  another  of  the  conspirators.  Men  in 
authority  came,  and  sought  by  promises,  threats, 
and  even  tortures,  to  ascertain  the  names  of 
other  accomplices.  His  companion,  wearied 
out  with  pain  and  suffering,  and  stimulated 
by  the  hope  of  saving  his  own  life,  at  last 
began  to  yield.  Peter  raised  himself,  leaned 
upon  his  elbow,  looked  at  the  poor  fellow,  say 
ing  quietly,  "Die  like  a  man,"  and  instantly 
lay  down  again.  It  was  enough;  not  another 
word  was  extorted. 

One  of  the  most  notable  individuals  in  the 
plot  was  a  certain  Jack  Purcell,  commonly 
called  Gullah  Jack,  —  Gullah  signifying  An 
gola,  the  place  of  his  origin.  A  conjurer  by 
profession  and  by  lineal  heritage  in  his  own 
country,  he  had  resumed  the  practice  of  his 
vocation  on  this  side  the  Atlantic.  For  fifteen 
years  he  had  wielded  in  secret  an  immense 


DENMARK  VESEY  231 

influence  among  a  sable  constituency  in  Charles 
ton;  and  as  he  had  the  reputation  of  being 
invulnerable,  and  of  teaching  invulnerability 
as  an  art,  he  was  very  good  at  beating  up 
recruits  for  insurrection.  Over  those  of  Ango- 
lese  descent,  especially,  he  was  a  perfect  king, 
and  made  them  join  in  the  revolt  as  one  man. 
They  met  him  monthly  at  a  place  called  Bulk- 
ley's  Farm,  selected  because  the  black  overseer 
on  that  plantation  was  one  of  the  initiated,  and 
because  the  farm  was  accessible  by  water,  thus 
enabling  them  to  elude  the  patrol.  There  they 
prepared  cartridges  and  pikes,  and  had  primi 
tive  banquets,  which  assumed  a  melodramatic 
character  under  the  inspiriting  guidance  of 
Jack.  If  a  fowl  was  privately  roasted,  that 
mystic  individual  muttered  incantations  over 
it;  and  then  they  all  grasped  at  it,  exclaim 
ing,  "  Thus  we  pull  Buckra  to  pieces !  "  He 
gave  them  parched  corn  and  ground-nuts  to 
be  eaten  as  internal  safeguards  on  the  day 
before  the  outbreak,  and  a  consecrated  cullah, 
or  crab's  claw,  to  be  carried  in  the  mouth  by 
each,  as  an  amulet.  These  rather  questionable 


232  TRAVELLERS  AND   OUTLAWS 

means  secured  him  a  power  which  was  very 
unquestionable ;  the  witnesses  examined  in  his 
presence  all  showed  dread  of  his  conjurations, 
and  referred  to  him  indirectly,  with  a  kind  of 
awe,  as  "the  little  man  who  can't  be  shot." 

When  Gullah  Jack  was  otherwise  engaged, 
there  seems  to  have  been  a  sort  of  deputy  seer 
employed  in  the  enterprise,  a  blind  man  named 
Philip.  He  was  a  preacher ;  was  said  to  have 
been  born  with  a  caul  on  his  head,  and  so 
claimed  the  gift  of  second-sight.  Timid  adhe 
rents  were  brought  to  his  house  for  ghostly 
counsel.  "  Why  do  you  look  so  timorous  ? " 
he  said  to  William  Garner,  and  then  quoted 
Scripture,  "  Let  not  your  heart  be  troubled." 
That  a  blind  man  should  know  how  he  looked, 
was  beyond  the  philosophy  of  the  visitor ;  and 
this  piece  of  rather  cheap  ingenuity  carried  the 
day. 

Other  leaders  were  appointed  also.  Monday 
Gell  was  the  scribe  of  the  enterprise ;  he  was 
a  native  African,  who  had  learned  to  read  and 
write.  He  was  by  trade  a  harness-maker,  work 
ing  chiefly  on  his  own  account.  He  confessed 


DENMARK   VESEY  233 

that  he  had  written  a  letter  to  President  Boyer 
of  the  new  black  republic ;  "  the  letter  was 
about  the  sufferings  of  the  blacks,  and  to  know 
if  the  people  of  St.  Domingo  would  help  them 
if  they  made  an  effort  to  free  themselves." 
This  epistle  was  sent  by  the  black  cook  of 
a  Northern  schooner,  and  the  envelope  was 
addressed  to  a  relative  of  the  bearer. 

Tom  Russell  was  the  armorer,  and  made 
pikes  "  on  a  very  improved  model,"  the  official 
report  admits.  Polydore  Faber  fitted  the 
weapons  with  handles.  Bacchus  Hammett  had 
charge  of  the  fire-arms  and  ammunition,  not  as 
yet  a  laborious  duty.  William  Garner  and 
Mingo  Harth  were  to  lead  the  horse-company. 
Lot  Forrester  was  the  courier,  and  had  done, 
no  one  ever  knew  how  much,  in  the  way  of 
enlisting  country  negroes,  of  whom  Ned 
Bennett  was  to  take  command  when  enlisted. 
Being  the  governor's  servant,  Ned  was  prob 
ably  credited  with  some  official  experience. 
These  were  the  officers:  now  for  the  plan  of 
attack. 

It   was   the   custom   then,   as   later,  for  the 


234  TRAVELLERS   AND   OUTLAWS 

country  negroes  to  flock  largely  into  Charles 
ton  on  Sunday.  More  than  a  thousand  came, 
on  ordinary  occasions,  and  a  far  larger  number 
might  at  any  time  make  their  appearance  with 
out  exciting  any  suspicion.  They  gathered  in, 
especially  by  water,  from  the  opposite  sides  of 
Ashley  and  Cooper  Rivers,  and  from  the  neigh 
boring  islands ;  and  they  came  in  a  great  num 
ber  of  canoes  of  various  sizes,  —  many  of  which 
could  carry  a  hundred  men,  —  which  were 
ordinarily  employed  in  bringing  agricultural 
products  to  the  Charleston  market.  To  get 
an  approximate  knowledge  of  the  number,-  the 
city  government  once  ordered  the  persons  thus 
arriving  to  be  counted,  —  and  that  during  the 
progress  of  the  trials,  at  a  time  when  the  negroes 
were  rather  fearful  of  coming  into  town ;  and 
it  was  found,  that,  even  then,  there  were  more 
than  five  hundred  visitors  on  a  single  Sunday. 
This  fact,  then,  was  the  essential  point  in  the 
plan  of  insurrection.  Whole  plantations  were 
found  to  have  been  enlisted  among  the  "  candi 
dates,"  as  they  were  termed ;  and  it  was  proved 
that  the  city  negroes,  who  lived  nearest  the 


DENMARK   VESEY  235 

place  of  meeting,  had  agreed  to  conceal  these 
confederates  in  their  houses  to  a  large  extent, 
on  the  night  of  the  proposed  outbreak. 

The  details  of  the  plan,  however,  were  not 
rashly  committed  to  the  mass  of  the  confeder 
ates  ;  they  were  known  only  to  a  few,  and  were 
finally  to  be  announced  only  after  the  even 
ing  prayer-meetings  on  the  appointed  Sunday. 
But  each  leader  had  his  own  company  enlisted, 
and  his  own  work  marked  out.  When  the 
clock  struck  twelve,  all  were  to  move.  Peter 
Poyas  was  to  lead  a  party  ordered  to  assemble 
at  South  Bay,  and  to  be  joined  by  a  force  from 
James's  Island ;  he  was  then  to  march  up  and 
seize  the  arsenal  and  guard-house  opposite  St. 
Michael's  Church,  and  detach  a  sufficient  num 
ber  to  cut  off.  all  white  citizens  who  should 
appear  at  the  alarm-posts.  A  second  body  of 
negroes,  from  the  country  and  the  Neck,  headed 
by  Ned  Bennett,  was  to  assemble  on  the  Neck, 
and  seize  the  arsenal  there.  A  third  was  to 
meet  at  Gov.  Bennett's  Mills,  under  command 
of  Rolla,  and,  after  putting  the  governor  and 
intendant  to  death,  to  march  through  the  city, 


236       TRAVELLERS  AND  OUTLAWS 

or  be  posted  at  Cannon's  Bridge,  thus  prevent 
ing  the  inhabitants  of  Cannonsborough  from 
entering  the  city.  A  fourth,  partly  from  the 
country,  and  partly  from  the  neighboring  local 
ities  in  the  city,  was  to  rendezvous  on  Gadsden's 
Wharf,  and  attack  the  upper  guard-house. 
A  fifth,  composed  of  country  and  Neck  negroes, 
was  to  assemble  at  Bulkley's  Farm,  two  miles 
and  a  half  from  the  city,  seize  the  upper  powder- 
magazine,  and  then  march  down ;  and  a  sixth 
was  to  assemble  at  Denmark  Vesey's,  and  obey 
his  orders.  A  seventh  detachment,  under 
Gullah  Jack,  was  to  assemble  in  Boundary 
Street,  at  the  head  of  King  Street,  to  capture 
the  arms  of  the  Neck  company  of  militia,  and 
to  take  an  additional  supply  from  Mr.  Duquer- 
cron's  shop.  The  naval  stores  on  Mey's  Wharf 
were  also  to  be  attacked.  Meanwhile,  a  horse- 
company,  consisting  of  many  draymen,  hostlers, 
and  butcher-boys,  was  to  meet  at  Lightwood's 
Alley,  and  then  scour  the  streets  to  prevent 
the  whites  from  assembling.  Every  white  man 
coming  out  of  his  own  door  was  to  be  killed ; 
and,  if  necessary,  the  city  was  to  be  fired  in 


DENMARK   VESEY  237 

several  places,  —  slow-match  for  this  purpose 
having  been  purloined  from  the  public  arsenal, 
and  placed  in  an  accessible  position. 

Beyond  this,  the  plan  of  action  was  either 
unformed  or  undiscovered;  some  slight  reliance 
seems  to  have  been  placed  on  English  aid, — 
more  on  assistance  from  St.  Domingo.  At  any 
rate,  all  the  ships  in  the  harbor  were  to  be 
seized;  and  in  these,  if  the  worst  came  to  the 
worst,  those  most  deeply  inculpated  could  set 
sail,  bearing  with  them,  perhaps,  the  spoils  of 
shops  and  of  banks.  It  seems  to  be  admitted  by 
the  official  narrative,  that  they  might  have  been 
able,  at  that  season  of  the  year,  and  with  the 
aid  of  the  fortifications  on  the  Neck  and  around 
the  harbor,  to  retain  possession  of  the  city  for 
some  time. 

So  unsuspicious  were  the  authorities,  so  un 
prepared  the  citizens,  so  open  to  attack  lay  the 
city,  that  nothing  seemed  necessary  to  the  suc 
cess  of  the  insurgents  except  organization  and 
arms.  Indeed,  the  plan  of  organization  easily 
covered  a  supply  of  arms.  By  their  own  con 
tributions  they  had  secured  enough  to  strike 


338  TRAVELLERS   AND    OUTLAWS 

the  first  blow,  —  a  few  hundred  pikes  and  dag 
gers,  together  with  swords  and  guns  for  the 
leaders.  But  they  had  carefully  marked  every 
place  in  the  city  where  weapons  were  to  be 
obtained.  On  King-street  Road,  beyond  the 
municipal  limits,  in  a  common  wooden  shop, 
were  left  unguarded  the  arms  of  the  Neck 
company  of  militia,  to  the  number  of  several 
hundred  stand ;  and  these  were  to  be  secured 
by  Bacchus  Hammett,  whose  master  kept  the 
establishment.  In  Mr.  Duquercron's  shop 
there  were  deposited  for  sale  as  many  more 
weapons;  and  they  had  noted  Mr.  Schirer's 
shop  in  Queen  Street,  and  other  gunsmiths' 
establishments.  Finally,  the  State  arsenal  in 
Meeting  Street,  a  building  with  no  defences 
except  ordinary  wooden  doors,  was  to  be  seized 
early  in  the  outbreak.  Provided,  therefore, 
that  the  first  moves  proved  successful,  all  the 
rest  appeared  sure. 

Very  little  seems  to  have  been  said  among 
the  conspirators  in  regard  to  any  plans  of  riot 
or  debauchery,  subsequent  to  the  capture  of 
the  city.  Either  their  imaginations  did  not 


DENMARK  VESEY  239 

dwell  on  them,  or  the  witnesses  did  not  dare 
to  give  testimony,  or  the  authorities  to  print 
it.  Death  was  to  be  dealt  out,  comprehensive 
and  terrible ;  but  nothing  more  is  mentioned. 
One  prisoner,  Rolla,  is  reported  in  the  evidence 
to  have  dropped  hints  in  regard  to  the  destiny 
of  the  women  ;  and  there  was  a  rumor  in  the 
newspapers  of  the  time,  that  he  or  some  other 
of  Gov.  Bennett's  slaves  was  to  have  taken 
the  governor's  daughter,,  a  young  girl  of  six 
teen,  for  his  wife,  in  the  event  of  success ;  but 
this  is  all.  On  the  other  hand,  Denmark 
Vesey  was  known  to  be  for  a  war  of  imme 
diate  and  total  extermination ;  and  when  some 
of  the  company  opposed  killing  "  the  ministers 
and  the  women  and  children,"  Vesey  read  from 
the  Scriptures  that  all  should  be  cut  off,  and 
said  that  "  it  was  for  their  safety  not  to  leave 
one  white  skin  alive,  for  this  was  the  plan  they 
pursued  at  St.  Domingo."  And  all  this  was 
not  a  mere  dream  of  one  lonely  enthusiast,  but 
a  measure  which  had  been  maturing  for  four 
full  years  among  several  confederates,  and  had 
been  under  discussion  for  five  months  among 
multitudes  of  initiated  "  candidates." 


240  TRAVELLERS  AND   OUTLAWS 

As  usual  with  slave-insurrections,  the  best 
men  and  those  most  trusted  were  deepest  in 
the  plot.  Rolla  was  the  only  prominent  con 
spirator  who  was  not  an  active  church-member. 
"Most  of  the  ringleaders,"  says  a  Charleston 
letter-writer  of  that  day,  "were  the  rulers  or 
class-leaders  in  what  is  called  the  African 
Society,  and  were  considered  faithful,  honest 
fellows.  Indeed,  many  of  the  owners  could 
not  be  convinced,  till  the  fellows  confessed 
themselves,  that  they  were  concerned,  and  that 
the  first  object  of  all  was  to  kill  their  masters." 
And  the  first  official  report  declares  that  it 
would  not  be  difficult  to  assign  a  motive  for 
the  insurrectionists,  "  if  it  had  not  been  dis 
tinctly  proved,  that,  with  scarcely  an  exception, 
they  had  no  individual  hardship  to  complain 
of,  and  were  among  the  most  humanely  treated 
negroes  in  the  city.  The  facilities  for  combin 
ing  and  confederating  in  such  a  scheme  -  were 
amply  afforded  by  the  extreme  indulgence  and 
kindness  which  characterize  the  domestic 
treatment  of  our  slaves.  Many  slave-owners 
among  us,  not  satisfied  with  ministering  to  the 


DENMARK  VESEY  241 

wants  of  their  domestics  by  all  the  comforts  of 
abundant  food  and  excellent  clothing,  with  a 
misguided  benevolence  have  not  only  permitted 
their  instruction,  but  lent  to  such  efforts  their 
approbation  and  applause." 

"  I  sympathize  most  sincerely,"  says  the 
anonymous  author  of  a  pamphlet  of  the  period, 
"  with  the  very  respectable  and  pious  clergy 
man  whose  heart  must  still  bleed  at  the  recol- 
letion  that  his  confidential  class-leader,  but  a 
week  or  two  before  his  just  conviction,  had 
received  the  communion  of  the  Lord's  Supper 
from  his  hand.  This  wretch  had  been  brought 
up  in  his  pastor's  family,  and  was  treated  with 
the  same  Christian  attention  as  was  shown  to 
their  own  children."  "  To  us  who  are  accus 
tomed  to  the  base  and  proverbial  ingratitude 
of  these  people,  this  ill  return  of  kindness  and 
confidence  is  not  surprising ;  but  they  who  are 
ignorant  of  their  real  character  will  read  and 
wonder." 

One  demonstration  of  this  "  Christian  atten 
tion  "  had  lately  been  the  closing  of  the  African 
Church,  —  of  which,  as  has  been  stated,  most 


242  TRAVELLERS  AND  OUTLAWS 

of  the  leading  revolutionists  were  members,  — 
on  the  ground  that  it  tended  to  spread  the 
dangerous  infection  of  the  alphabet.  On  Jan. 
15,  1821,  the  city  marshal,  John  J.  Lafar,  had 
notified  "  ministers  of  the  gospel  and  others 
who  keep  night-  and  Sunday-schools  for  slaves, 
that  the  education  of  such  persons  is  forbidden 
by  law,  and  that  the  city  government  feel 
imperiously  bound  to  enforce  the  penalty." 
So  that  there  were  some  special  as  well  as 
general  grounds  for  disaffection  among  these 
ungrateful  favorites  of  fortune,  the  slaves. 
Then  there  were  fancied  dangers.  An  absurd 
report  had  somehow  arisen,  —  since  you  cannot 
keep  men  ignorant  without  making  them  un 
reasonable  also,  —  that  on  the  ensuing  Fourth 
of  July  the  whites  were  to  create  a  false  alarm, 
and  that  every  black  man  coming  out  was  to 
be  killed,  "  in  order  to  thin  them ; "  this  being 
done  to  prevent  their  joining  an  imaginary 
army  supposed  to  be  on  its  way  from  Hayti. 
Others  were  led  to  suppose  that  Congress  had 
ended  the  Missouri  Compromise  discussion  by 
making  them  all  free,  and  that  the  law  would 


DENMARK  VESEY  243 

protect  their  liberty  if  they  could  only  secure 
it.  Others,  again,  were  threatened  with  the 
vengeance  of  the  conspirators,  unless  they  also 
joined;  on  the  night  of  attack,  it  was  said,  the 
initiated  would  have  a  countersign,  and  all  who 
did  not  know  it  would  share  the  fate  of  the 
whites.  Add  to  this  the  reading  of  Congres 
sional  speeches,  and  of  the  copious  magazine  of 
revolution  to  be  found  in  the  Bible,  —  and  it 
was  no  wonder,  if  they  for  the  first  time  were 
roused,  under  the  energetic  leadership  of  Vesey, 
to  a  full  consciousness  of  their  own  condition. 

"  Not  only  Avere  the  leaders  of  good  character, 
and  very  much  indulged  by  their  owners ;  but 
this  was  very  generally  the  case  with  all  who 
were  convicted,  —  many  of  them  possessing  the 
highest  confidence  of  their  owners,  and  not  one 
of  bad  character."  In  one  case  it  was  proved 
that  Vesey  had  forbidden  his  followers  to  trust 
a  certain  man,  because  he  had  once  been>.seen 
intoxicated.  In  another  case  it  was  shown 
that  a  slave  named  George  had  made  every 
effort  to  obtain  their  confidence,  but  was  con 
stantly  excluded  from  their  meetings  as  a 


244  TRAVELLERS  AND   OUTLAWS 

talkative  fellow  who  could  not  be  trusted,  — 
a  policy  which  his  levity  of  manner,  when 
examined  in  court,  fully  justified.  They  took 
no  women  into  counsel,  —  not  from  any  dis 
trust  apparently,  but  in  order  that  their  children 
might  not  be  left  uncared-for  in  case  of  defeat 
and  destruction.  House-servants  were  rarely 
trusted,  or  only  when  they  had  been  carefully 
sounded  by  the  chief  leaders.  Peter  Poyas,  in 
commissioning  an  agent  to  enlist  men,  gave 
him  excellent  cautions :  "  Don't  mention  it  to 
those  waiting-men  who  receive  presents  of  old 
coats,  etc.,  from  their  masters,  or  they'll  betray 
us ;  I  will  speak  to  them."  When  he  did 
speak,  if  he  did  not  convince  them,  he  at  least 
frightened  them.  But  the  chief  reliance  was 
on  those  slaves  Avho  were  hired  out,  and  there 
fore  more  uncontrolled,  —  and  also  upon  the 
country  negroes. 

The  same  far-sighted  policy  directed  the 
conspirators  to  disarm  suspicion  by  peculiarly 
obedient  and  orderly  conduct.  And  it  shows 
the  precaution  with  which  the  thing  was 
carried  on,  that,  although  Peter  Poyas  was 


DENMARK  YESEY  245 

proved  to  have  had  a  list  of  some  six  hundred 
persons,  yet  not  one  of  his  particular  company 
was  ever  brought  to  trial.  As  each  leader 
kept  to  himself  the  names  of  his  proselytes, 
and  as  Monday  Gell  was  the  only  one  of  these 
leaders  who  turned  traitor,  any  opinion  as  to 
the  numbers  actually  engaged  must  be  alto 
gether  conjectural.  One  witness  said  nine 
thousand ;  another,  six  thousand  six  hundred. 
These  statements  were  probably  extravagant, 
though  not  more  so  than  Gov.  Bennett's  asser 
tion,  on  the  other  side,  that  "all  who  were 
actually  concerned  had  been  brought  to  jus 
tice,"  —  unless  by  this  phrase  he  designates 
only  the  ringleaders.  The  avowed  aim  of 
the  governor's  letter,  indeed,  is  to  smooth  the 
thing  over,  for  the  credit  and  safety  of  the 
city;  and  its  evasive  tone  contrasts  strongly 
with  the  more  frank  and  thorough  statements 
of  the  judges,  made  after  the  thing  could  no 
longer  be  hushed  up.  These  high  authorities 
explicitly  acknowledge  that  they  had  failed  to 
detect  more  than  a  small  minority  of  those 
concerned  in  the  project,  and  seem  to  admit, 


246  TRAVELLERS  AND  OUTLAWS 

that,  if  it  had  once  been  brought  to  a  head, 
the  slaves  generally  would  have  joined  in. 

"  We  cannot  venture  to  say,"  says  the  inten- 
dant's  pamphlet,  "  to  how  many  the  knowledge 
of  the  intended  effort  was  communicated,  who 
without  signifying  their  assent,  or  attending 
any  of  the  meetings,  were  yet  prepared  to  profit 
by  events.  That  there  are  many  who  would 
not  have  permitted  the  enterprise  to  have 
failed  at  a  critical  moment,  for  the  want  of 
their  co-operation,  we  have  the  best  reason  for 
believing."  So  believed  the  community  at 
large ;  and  the  panic  was  in  proportion,  when 
the  whole  danger  was  finally  made  public. 
"  The  scenes  I  witnessed,"  says  one  who  has 
since  narrated  the  circumstances,  "  and  the 
declaration  of  the  impending  danger  that  met 
us  at  all  times  and  on  all  occasions,  forced  the 
conviction  that  never  were  an  entire  people 
more  thoroughly  alarmed  than  were  the  peo 
ple  of  Charleston  at  that  time.  .  .  .  During  the 
excitement,  and  the  trial  of  the  supposed  con 
spirators,  rumor  proclaimed  all,  and  doubtless 
more  than  all,  the  horrors  of  the  plot.  The 


DENMARK   VESEY  247 

city  was  to  be  fired  in  every  quarter;  the 
arsenal  in  the  immediate  vicinity  was  to  be 
broken  open,  and  the  arms  distributed  to  the 
insurgents,  and  a  universal  massacre  of  the 
white  inhabitants  to  take  place.  Nor  did  there 
seem  to  be  any  doubt  in  the  mind  of  the  people, 
that  such  would  actually  have  been  the  result 
had  not  the  plot  fortunately  been  detected 
before  the  time  appointed  for  the  outbreak.  It 
was  believed,  as  a  matter  of  course,  that  every 
black  in  the  city  would  join  in  the  insurrection, 
and  that  if  the  original  design  had  been 
attempted,  and  the  city  taken  by  surprise,  the 
negroes  would  have  achieved  a  complete  and 
easy  victory.  Nor  does  it  seem  at  all  impos 
sible  that  such  might  have  been,  or  yet  may 
be,  the  case,  if  any  well-arranged  and  resolute 
rising  should  take  place." 

Indeed,  this  universal  admission,  that  all  the 
slaves  were  ready  to  take  part  in  any  desperate 
enterprise,  was  one  of  the  most  startling  aspects 
of  the  affair.  The  authorities  say  that  the  two 
principal  State's  evidence  declared  that  "  they 
never  spoke  to  any  person  of  color  on  the 


248  TRAVELLERS  AND  OUTLAWS 

subject,  or  knew  of  any  one  who  had  been 
spoken  to  by  the  other  leaders,  who  had  with 
held  his  assent."  And  the  conspirators  seem 
to  have  been  perfectly  satisfied  that  all  the 
remaining  slaves  would  enter  their  ranks  upon 
the  slightest  success.  "Let  us  assemble  a 
sufficient  number  to  commence  the  work  with 
spirit,  and  we'll  not  want  men ;  they'll  fall  in 
behind  us  fast  enough."  And  as  an  illustration 
of  this  readiness,  the  official  report  mentions 
a  slave  who  had  belonged  to  one  master  for 
sixteen  years,  sustaining  a  high  character  for 
fidelity  and  affection,  who  had  twice  travelled 
with  him  through  the  Northern  States,  resisting 
every  solicitation  to  escape,  and  who  yet  was 
very  deeply  concerned  in  the  insurrection, 
though  knowing  it  to  involve  the  probable 
destruction  of  the  whole  family  with  whom  he 
lived. 

One  singular  circumstance  followed  the  first 
rumors  of  the  plot.  Several  white  men,  said  to 
be  of  low  and  unprincipled  character,  at  once 
began  to  make  interest  with  the  supposed 
leaders  among  the  slaves,  either  from  genuine 


DENMARK   VESEY  249 

sympathy,  or  with  the  intention  of  betraying 
them  for  money,  or  by  profiting  by  the  insurrec 
tion,  should  it  succeed.  Four  of  these  were 
brought  to  trial ;  but  the  official  report  ex 
presses  the  opinion  that  many  more  might  have 
been  discovered  but  for  the  inadmissibility  of 
slave  testimony  against  whites.  Indeed,  the 
evidence  against  even  these  four  was  insufficient 
for  a  capital  conviction,  although  one  was  over 
heard,  through  stratagem,  by  the  intendant 
himself,  and  arrested  on  the  spot.  This  man 
was  a  Scotchman,  another  a  Spaniard,  a  third  a 
German,  and  the  fourth  a  Carolinian.  The  last 
had  for  thirty  years  kept  a  shop  in  the  neigh 
borhood  of  Charleston ;  he  was  proved  to  have 
asserted  that  "the  negroes  had  as  much  right 
to  fight  for  their  liberty  as  the  white  people," 
had  offered  to  head  them  in  the  enterprise,  and 
had  said  that  in  three  weeks  he  would  have 
two  thousand  men.  But  in  no  case,  it  appears, 
did  these  men  obtain  the  confidence  of  the 
slaves;  and  the  whole  plot  was  conceived  and 
organized,  so  far  as  appears,  without  the 
slightest  co-operation  from  any  white  man. 


250  TRAVELLERS  AND   OUTLAWS 

The  trial  of  the  conspirators  began  on 
Wednesday,  June  19.  At  the  request  of  the 
intendant,  Justices  Kennedy  and  Parker  sum 
moned  five  freeholders  (Messrs.  Drayton, 
Heyward,  Pringle,  Legare*,  and  Turnbull)  to 
constitute  a  court,  under  the  provisions  of  the 
Act  "for  the  better  ordering  and  governing 
negroes  and  other  slaves."  The  intendant  laid 
the  case  before  them,  with  a  list  of  prisoners 
and  witnesses.  By  a  vote  of  the  court,  all 
spectators  were  excluded,  except  the  owners 
and  counsel  of  the  slaves  concerned.  No  other 
colored  person  was  allowed  to  enter  the  jail, 
and  a  strong  guard  of  soldiers  was  kept  always 
on  duty  around  the  building.  Under  these 
general  arrangements  the  trials  proceeded  with 
elaborate  formality,  though  with  some  variations 
from  ordinary  usage,  —  as  was,  indeed,  required 
by  the  statute. 

For  instance,  the  law  provided  that  the 
testimony  of  any  Indian  or  slave  could  be 
received,  without  oath,  against  a  slave  or  free 
colored  person,  although  it  was  not  valid,  even 
under  oath,  against  a  white.  But  it  is  best  to 


DENMARK  VESEY  251 

quote  the  official  language  in  respect  to  the 
rules  adopted :  "  As  the  court  had  been  organ 
ized  under  a  statute  of  a  peculiar  and  local 
character,  and  intended  for  the  government  of 
a  distinct  class  of  persons  in  the  community, 
they  were  bound  to  conform  their  proceedings 
to  its  provisions,  which  depart  in  many  essential 
features  from  the  principles  of  the  common 
law  and  some  of  the  settled  rules  of  evidence. 
The  court,  however,  determined  to  adopt  those 
rules,  whenever  they  were  not  repugnant  to  nor 
expressly  excepted  by  that  statute,  nor  incon 
sistent  with  the  local  situation  and  policy  of  the 
State  ;  and  laid  down  for  their  own  government 
the  following  regulations :  First,  that  no  slave 
should  be  tried  except  in  the  presence  of  his 
owner  or  his  counsel,  and  that  notice  should  be 
given  in  every  case  at  least  one  day  before  the 
trial ;  second,  that  the  testimony  of  one  witness, 
unsupported  by  additional  evidence  or  by  cir 
cumstances,  should  lead  to  no  conviction  of  a 
capital  nature  ;  third,  that  the  witnesses  should 
be  confronted  with  the  accused  and  with  each 
other  in  every  case,  except  where  testimony 


252  TRAVELLERS   AND   OUTLAWS 

was  given  under  a  solemn  pledge  that  the 
mimes  of  the  witnesses  should  not  be  divulged, 
—  as  they  declared,  in  some  instances,  that  they 
apprehended  being  murdered  by  the  blacks,  if 
it  was  known  that  they  had  volunteered  their 
evidence;  fourth,  that  the  prisoners  might  be 
represented  by  counsel,  whenever  this  was 
requested  by  the  owners  of  the  slaves,  or  by 
the  prisoners  themselves  if  free ;  fifth,  that  the 
statements  or  defences  of  the  accused  should 
be  heard  in  every  case,  and  they  be  permitted 
themselves  to  examine  any  witness  they  thought 
proper." 

It  is  singular  to  observe  how  entirely  these 
rules  seem  to  concede  that  a  slave's  life  has  no 
sort  of  value  to  himself,  but  only  to  his  master. 
His  master,  not  he  himself,  must  choose  whether 
it  be  worth  while  to  employ  counsel.  His 
master,  not  his  mother  or  his  wife,  must  be 
present  at  the  trial.  So  far  is  this  carried,  that 
the  provision  to  exclude  "  persons  who  had  no 
particular  interest  in  the  slaves  accused  "  seems 
to  have  excluded  every  acknowledged  relative 
they  had  in  the  world,  and  admitted  only  those 


DENMARK   VESEY  253 

who  had  invested  in  them  so  many  dollars. 
And  yet  the  very  first  section  of  that  part  of 
the  statute  under  which  they  were  tried  lays 
down  an  explicit  recognition  of  their  human 
ity:  "  And  whereas  natural  justice  forbids  that 
any  person,  of  what  condition  soever,  should  be 
condemned  unheard."  So  thoroughly,  in  the 
whole  report,  are  the  ideas  of  person  and 
chattel  intermingled,  that  when  Gov.  Bennett 
petitions  for  mitigation  of  sentence  in  the  case 
of  his  slave  Batteau,  and  closes,  "I  ask  this, 
gentlemen,  as  an  individual  incurring  a  severe 
and  distressing  loss,"  it  is  really  impossible  to 
decide  whether 'the  predominant  emotion  be 
affectional  or  financial. 

It  is  a  matter  of  painful  necessity  to  ac 
knowledge  that  the  proceedings  of  most  slave- 
tribunals  have  justified  the  honest  admission  of 
Gov.  Adams  of  South  Carolina,  in  his  legisla 
tive  message  of  1855:  "The  administration 
of  our  laws,  in  relation  to  our  colored  popula 
tion,  by  our  courts  of  magistrates  and  freehold 
ers,  as  these  courts  are  at  present  constituted, 
calls  loudly  for  reform.  Their  decisions  are 


254  TRAVELLERS  AND   OUTLAWS 

rarely  in  conformity  with  justice  or  humanity." 
This  trial,  as  reported  by  the  justices  them 
selves,  seems  to  have  been  no  worse  than  the 
average,  —  perhaps  better.  In  all,  thirty-five 
were  sentenced  to  death,  thirty-four  to  trans 
portation,  twenty-seven  acquitted  by  the  court, 
and  twenty-five  discharged  without  trial,  by  the 
Committee  of  Vigilance,  —  making  in  all  one 
hundred  and  twenty-one. 

The  sentences  pronounced  by  Judge  Ken 
nedy  upon  the  leading  rebels,  while  paying  a 
high  tribute  to  their  previous  character,  of 
course  bring  all  law  and  all  Scripture  to  prove 
the  magnitude  of  their  crime.  "  It  is  a  melan 
choly  fact,"  he  says,  "that  those  servants  in 
whom  we  reposed  the  most  unlimited  confi 
dence  have  been  the  principal  actors  in  this 
wicked  scheme."  Then  he  rises  into  earnest 
appeals.  "  Are  you  incapable  of  the  heavenly 
influence  of  that  gospel,  all  whose  paths  are 
peace?  It  was  to  reconcile  us  to  our  destiny 
on  earth,  and  to  enable  us  to  discharge  with 
fidelity  all  our  duties,  whether  as  master  or 
servant,  that  those  inspired  precepts  were  im 
parted  by  Heaven  to  fallen  man." 


DENMARK   VESEY  255 

To  these  reasonings  the  prisoners  had,  of 
course,  nothing  to  say ;  but  the  official  reports 
bear  the  strongest  testimony  to  their  fortitude. 
"  Rolla,  when  arraigned,  affected  not  to  under 
stand  the  charge  against  him,  and,  when  it  was 
at  his  request  further  explained  to  him,  assumed, 
with  wonderful  adroitness,  astonishment  and 
surprise.  He  was  remarkable,  throughout  his 
trial,  for  great  presence  and  composure  of  mind. 
When  he  was  informed  he  was  convicted,  and 
was  advised  to  prepare  for  death,  though  he 
had  previously  (but  after  his  trial)  confessed 
his  guilt,  he  appeared  perfectly  confounded, 
but  exhibited  no  signs  of  fear.  In  Ned's  be 
havior  there  was  nothing  remarkable ;  but  his 
countenance  was  stern  and  immovable,  even 
whilst  he  was  receiving  the  sentence  of  death : 
from  his  looks  it  was  impossible  to  discover  or 
conjecture  what  were  his  feelings.  Not  so  with 
Peter:  for  in  his  countenance  were  strongly 
marked  disappointed  ambition,  revenge,  indig 
nation,  and  an  anxiety  to  know  how  far  the 
discoveries  had  extended ;  and  the  same  emo 
tions  were  exhibited  in  his  conduct.  He  did 


256  TRAVELLERS  AND   OUTLAWS 

not  appear  to  fear  personal  consequences,  for 
his  whole  behavior  indicated  the  reverse ;  but 
exhibited  an  evident  anxiety  for  the  success 
of  their  plan,  in  which  his  whole  soul  was 
embarked.  His  countenance  and  behavior  were 
the  same  when  he  received  his  sentence  ;  and 
his  only  words  were,  on  retiring,  4I  suppose 
you'll  let  me  see  my  wife  and  family  before 
I  die?'  and  that  not  in  a  supplicating  tone. 
When  he  was  asked,  a  day  or  two  after,  if  it 
was  possible  he  could  wish  to  see  his  master 
and  family  murdered,  who  had  treated  him  so 
kindly,  he  only  replied  to  the  question  by  a 
smile.  Monday's  behavior  was  not  peculiar. 
When  he  was  before  the  court,  his  arms  were 
folded;  he  heard  the  testimony  given  against 
him,  and  received  his  sentence,  with  the  utmost 
firmness  and  composure.  But  no  description 
can  accurately  convey  to  others  the  impression 
which  the  trial,  defence,  and  appearance  of 
Gullah  Jack  made  on  those  who  witnessed  the 
workings  of  his  cunning  and  rude  address. 
When  arrested  and  brought  before  the  court, 
in  company  with  another  African  named  Jack, 


DENMARK   VESEY  257 

the  property  of  the  estate  of  Prit chard,  he 
assumed  so  much  ignorance,  and  looked  and 
acted  the  fool  so  well,  that  some  of  the  court 
could  not  believe  that  this  was  the  necromancer 
who  was  sought  after.  This  conduct  he  con 
tinued  when  on  his  trial,  until  he  saw  the  wit 
nesses  and  heard  the  testimony  as  it  progressed 
against  him  ;  when,  in  an  instant,  his  counte 
nance  was  lighted  up  as  if  by  lightning,  and 
his  wildness  and  vehemence  of  gesture,  and  the 
malignant  glance  with  which  he  eyed  the  wit 
nesses  who  appeared  against  him,  all  indicated 
the  savage,  who  indeed  had  been  caught,  but 
not  tamed.  His  courage,  however,  soon  forsook 
him.  When  he  received  sentence  of  death, 
he  earnestly  implored  that  a  fortnight  longer 
might  be  allowed  him,  and  then  a  week  longer, 
which  he  continued  earnestly  to  solicit  until 
he  was  taken  from  the  court-room  to  his  cell ; 
and  when  he  was  carried  to  execution,  he  gave 
up  his  spirit  without  firmness  or  composure." 
Not  so  with  Denmark  Vesey.  The  plans  of 
years  were  frustrated ;  his  own  life  and  liberty 
were  thrown  away ;  many  others  were  sacri- 


258  TRAVELLERS   AND   OUTLAWS 

ficed  through  his  leadership ;  and  one  more  was 
added  to  the  list  of  unsuccessful  insurrections. 
All  these  disastrous  certainties  he  faced  calmly, 
and  gave  his  whole  mind  composedly  to  the 
conducting  of  his  defence.  With  his  arms 
tightly  folded,  and  his  eyes  fixed  on  the  floor, 
he  attentively  followed  every  item  of  the  testi 
mony.  He  heard  the  witnesses  examined  by 
the  court,  and  cross-examined  by  his  own 
counsel ;  and  it  is  evident  from  the  narrative  of 
the  presiding  judge,  that  he  showed  no  small 
skill  and  policy  in  the  searching  cross-examina 
tion  which  he  then  applied.  The  fears,  the 
feelings,  the  consciences,  of  those  who  had  be 
trayed  him,  all  were  in  turn  appealed  to ;  but 
the  facts  were  quite  overpowering,  and  it  was 
too  late  to  aid  his  comrades  or  himself.  Then 
turning  to  the  court,  he  skilfully  availed  him 
self  of  the  point  which  had  so  much  impressed 
the  community  :  the  intrinsic  improbability  that 
a  man  in  his  position  of  freedom  and  prosperity 
should  sacrifice  every  thing  to  free  other  people. 
If  they  thought  it  so  incredible,  why  not  give 
him  the  benefit  of  the  incredibility?  The  act 


DENMARK  VESEY  259 

being,  as  they  stated,  one  of  infatuation,  why 
convict  him  of  it  on  the  bare  word  of  men 
who,  by  their  own  showing,  had  not  only  shared 
the  infatuation,  but  proved  traitors  to  it?  An 
ingenious  defence,  —  indeed,  the  only  one  which 
could  by  any  possibility  be  suggested,  anterior 
to  the  days  of  Choate  and  somnambulism ;  but 
in  vain.  He  was  sentenced;  and  it  was  not, 
apparently,  till  the  judge  reproached  him  for 
the  destruction  he  had  brought  on  his  followers, 
that  he  showed  any  sign  of  emotion.  Then 
the  tears  came  into  his  eyes.  But  he  said  not 
another  word. 

m 

The  executions  took  place  on  five  different 
days ;  and,  bad  as  they  were,  they  might  have 
been  worse.  After  the  imaginary  Negro  Plot 
of  New  York,  in  1741,  thirteen  negroes  had 
been  judicially  burned  alive ;  two  had  suffered 
the  same  sentence  at  Charleston  in  1808 ;  and  it 
was  undoubtedly  some  mark  of  progress,  that 
in  this  case  the  gallows  took  the  place  of  the 
flames.  Six  were  hanged  on  July  2,  upon 
Blake's  lands,  near  Charleston,  —  Denmark 
Vesey,  Peter  Poyas,  Jesse,  Ned,  Rolla,  and 


260  TRAVELLERS  AND   OUTLAWS 

Batteau,  —  the  last  three  being  slaves  of  the 
governor  himself.  Gullah  Jack  and  John  were 
executed  "on  the  Lines,"  near  Charleston,  on 
July  12;  and  twenty-two  more  on  July  26. 
Four  others  suffered  their  fate  on  July  30 ;  and 
one  more,  William  Garner,  effected  a  tempo 
rary  escape,  was  captured,  and  tried  by  a  dif 
ferent  court,  and  was  finally  executed  on 
Aug.  9. 

The  self-control  of  these  men  did  not  desert 
them  at  their  execution.  When  the  six  leaders 
suffered  death,  the  report  says,  Peter  Poyas 
repeated  his  charge  of  secrecy :  "  Do  not  open 
your  lips ;  die  silent,  as  you  shall  see  me  do ; " 
and  all  obeyed.  And  though  afterwards,  as 
the  particulars  of  the  plot  became  better  known, 
there  was  less  inducement  to  conceal,  yet  every 
one  of  the  thirty-five  seems  to  have  met  his 
fate  bravely,  except  the  conjurer.  Gov.  Ben 
nett,  in  his  letter,  expresses  much  dissatisfac 
tion  at  the  small  amount  learned  from  the 
participators.  "  To  the  last  hour  of  the  exist 
ence  of  several  who  appeared  to  be  conspicuous 
actors  in  the  drama,  they  were  pressingly  im- 


DENMARK   VESEY  261 

portuned  to  make  further  confessions,"  —  this 
"importuning"  being  more  clearly  defined  in 
a  letter  of  Mr.  Ferguson,  owner  of  two  of  the 
slaves,  as  "having  them  severely  corrected." 
Yet  so  little  was  obtained,  that  the  governor 
was  compelled  to  admit  at  last  that  the  really 
essential  features  of  the  plot  were  not  known 
to  any  of  the  informers. 

It  is  to  be  remembered,  that  the  plot  failed 
because  a  man  unauthorized  and  incompetent, 
William  Paul,  undertook  to  make  enlistments 
on  his  own  account.  He  happened  on  one  of 
precisely  that  class  of  men,  —  favored  house- 
servants,  —  whom  his  leaders  had  expressly 
reserved  for  more  skilful  manipulations.  He 
being  thus  detected,  one  would  have  supposed 
that  the  discovery  of  many  accomplices  would 
at  once  have  followed.  The  number  enlisted 
was  counted  by  thousands ;  yet  for  twenty-nine 
days  after  the  first  treachery,  and  during  twenty 
days  of  official  examination,  only  fifteen  of  the 
conspirators  were  ferreted  out.  Meanwhile  the 
informers'  names  had  to  be  concealed  with 
the  utmost  secrecy ;  they  were  in  peril  of 


262  TRAVELLERS  AND  OUTLAWS 

their  lives  from  the  slaves,  —  William  Paul 
scarcely  dared  to  go  beyond  the  doorstep, — 
and  the  names  of  important  witnesses  examined 
in  June  were  still  suppressed  in  the  official 
report  published  in  October.  That  a  conspir 
acy  on  so  large  a  scale  should  have  existed  in 
embryo  during  four  years,  and  in  an  active 
form  for  several  months,  and  yet  have  been  so 
well  managed,  that,  after  actual  betrayal,  the 
authorities  were  again  thrown  off  their  guard, 
and  the  plot  nearly  brought  to  a  head  again,  — 
this  certainly  shows  extraordinary  ability  in 
the  leaders,  and  a  talent  for  concerted  action 
on  the  part  of  slaves  generally,  with  which  they 
have  hardly  been  credited. 

And  it  is  also  to  be  noted,  that  the  range  of 
the  conspiracy  extended  far  beyond  Charleston. 
It  was  proved  that  Frank,  slave  of  Mr.  Fergu 
son,  living  nearly  forty  miles  from  the  city,  had 
boasted  of  having  enlisted  four  plantations  in 
his  immediate  neighborhood.  It  was  in  evi 
dence  that  the  insurgents  "  were  trying  all 
round  the  country,  from  Georgetown  and  San- 
tee  round  about  to  Combahee,  to  get  people  ; " 


DENMARK  VESEY  263 

and,  after  the  trials,  it  was  satisfactorily  estab 
lished  that  Vesey  "  had  been  in  the  country  as 
far  north  as  South  Santee,  and  southwardly 
as  far  as  the  Euhaws,  which  is  between  seventy 
and  eighty  miles  from  the  city."  Mr.  Ferguson 
himself  testified  that  the  good  order  of  any 
gang  was  no  evidence  of  their  ignorance  of  the 
plot,  since  the  behavior  of  his  own  initiated 
slaves  had  been  unexceptionable,  in  accordance 
with  Vesey's  directions. 

With  such  an  organization  and  such  mate 
rials,  there  was  nothing  in  the  plan  which 
could  be  pronounced  incredible  or  impractic 
able.  There  is  no  reason  why  they  should 
not  have  taken  the  city.  After  all  the  gov 
ernor's  entreaties  as  to  moderate  language,  the 
authorities  were  obliged  to  admit  that  South 
Carolina  had  been  saved  from  a  "  horrible 
catastrophe."  "  For,  although  success  could 
not  possibly  have  attended  the  conspirators, 
yet,  before  their  suppression,  Charleston  would 
probably  have  been  wrapped  in  flames,  many 
valuable  lives  would  have  been  sacrificed,  and 
an  immense  loss  of  property  sustained  by  the 


264  TRAVELLERS   AND   OUTLAWS 

citizens,  even  though  no  other  distressing  occur 
rences  were  experienced  by  them ;  while  the 
plantations  in  the  lower  country  would  have 
been  disorganized,  and  the  agricultural  inter 
ests  have  sustained  an  enormous  loss."  The 
Northern  journals  had  already  expressed  still 
greater  anxieties.  "  It  appears,"  said  the  New- 
York  Commercial  Advertiser,  "  that,  but  for  the 
timely  disclosure,  the  whole  of  that  State  would 
in  a  few  days  have  witnessed  the  horrid  spec 
tacle  once  witnessed  in  St.  Domingo." 

My  friend,  David  Lee  Child,  has  kindly  com 
municated  to  me  a  few  memoranda  of  a  conver 
sation  held  long  since  with  a  free  colored  man 
who  had  worked  in  Vesey's  shop  during  the 
time  of  the  insurrection;  and  these  generally 
confirm  the  official  narratives.  "  I  was  a  young 
man  then,"  he  said  ;  "  and,  owing  to  the  pol 
icy  of  preventing  communication  between  free 
colored  people  and  slaves,  I  had  little  oppor 
tunity  of  ascertaining  how  the  slaves  felt  about 
it.  I  know  that  several  of  them  were  abused 
in  the  street,  and  some  put  in  prison,  for 
appearing  in  sackcloth.  There  was  an  ordi- 


DENMARK   VESEY  265 

nance  of  the  city,  that  any  slave  who  wore  a 
badge  of  mourning  should  be  imprisoned  and 
flogged.  They  generally  got  the  law,  which  is 
thirty-nine  lashes  ;  but  sometimes  it  was  accord 
ing  to  the  decision  of  the  court."  "  I  heard, 
at  the  time,  of  arms  being  buried  in  coffins  at 
Sullivan's  Island."  "  In  the  time  of  the  insur 
rection,  the  slaves  were  tried  in  a  small  room 
in  the  jail  where  they  were  confined.  No 
colored  person  was  allowed  to  go  within  two 
squares  of  the  prison.  Those  two  squares  were 
filled  with  troops,  five  thousand  of  whom  were 
on  duty  day  and  night.  I  was  told,  Vesey  said 
to  those  that  tried  him,  that  the  work  of  insur 
rection  would  go  on ;  but  as  none  but  white 
persons  were  permitted  to  be  present,  I  cannot 
tell  whether  he  said  it." 

During  all  this  time  there  was  naturally 
a  silence  in  the  Charleston  journals,  which 
strongly  contrasts  with  the  extreme  publicity 
at  last  given  to  the  testimony.  Even  the 
National  Intelligencer,  at  Washington,  passed 
lightly  over  the  affair,  and  deprecated  the  pub 
lication  of  particulars.  The  Northern  editors, 


266  TRAVELLERS  AND   OUTLAWS 

on  the  other  hand,  eager  for  items,  were  con 
stantly  complaining  of  this  reserve,  and  call 
ing  for  further  intelligence.  "  The  Charleston 
papers,"  said  the  Hartford  Courant  of  July 
16,  "  have  been  silent  on  the  subject  of  the 
insurrection  ;  but  letters  from  this  city  state 
that  it  has  created  much  alarm,  and  that  two 
brigades  of  troops  were  under  arms  for  some 
time  to  suppress  any  risings  that  might  have 
taken  place."  "  You  will  doubtless  hear," 
wrote  a  Charleston  correspondent  of  the  same 
paper,  just  before,  "  many  reports,  and  some 
exaggerated  ones."  "  There  was  certainly  a 
disposition  to  revolt,  and  some  preparations 
made,  principally  by  the  plantation  negroes,  to 
take  the  city."  "We  hoped  they  would  pro 
gress  so  far  as  to  enable  us  to  ascertain  and 
punish  the  ringleaders."  "Assure  my  friends 
that  we  feel  in  perfect  security,  although  the 
number  of  nightly  guards,  and  other  demon 
strations,  may  induce  a  belief  among  strangers 
to  the  contrary." 

The  strangers  would  have  been  very  blind 
strangers,  if  they  had  not  been  more  influenced 


DENMARK   VESEY  267 

by  the  actions  of  the  Charleston  citizens  than 
by  their  words.  The  original  information  was 
given  on  May  25,  1822.  The  time  passed,  and 
the  plot  failed  011  June  16.  A  plan  for  its 
revival  on  July  2  proved  abortive.  Yet  a  letter 
from  Charleston,  in  the  Hartford  Courant  of 
Aug.  6,  represented  the  panic  as  unabated : 
"Great  preparations  are  making,  and  all  the 
military  are  put  in  preparation  to  guard 
against  any  attempt  of  the  same  kind  again  ; 
but  we  have  no  apprehension  of  its  being 
repeated."  On  Aug.  10,  Gov.  Bennett  wrote 
the  letter  already  mentioned,  which  was  printed 
and  distributed  as  a  circular,  its  object  being  to 
deprecate  undue  alarm.  "  Every  individual  in 
the  State  is  interested,  whether  in  regard  to  his 
own  property,  or  the  reputation  of  the  State, 
in  giving  no  more  importance  to  the  transac 
tion  than  it  justly  merits."  Yet,  five  days  after 
this,  —  two  months  after  the  first  danger  had 
passed,  —  a  re-enforcement  of  United -States 
troops  arrived  at  Fort  Moultrie ;  and,  during 
the  same  month,  several  different  attempts  were 
made  by  small  parties  of  armed  negroes  to  cap- 


268  TRAVELLERS  AND  OUTLAWS 

ture  the  mails  between  Charleston  and  Savan 
nah,  and  a  reward  of  two  hundred  dollars  was 
offered  for  their  detection. 

The  first  official  report  of  the  trials  was  pre 
pared  by  the  intendant,  by  request  of  the  city 
council.  It  passed  through  four  editions  in  a 
few  months,  —  the  first  and  fourth  being  pub 
lished  in  Charleston,  and  the  second  and  third 
in  Boston.  Being,  however,  but  a  brief  pam 
phlet,  it  did  not  satisfy  the  public  curiosity ;  and 
in  October  of  the  same  year  (1822),  a  larger 
volume  appeared  at  Charleston,  edited  by  the 
magistrates  who  presided  at  the  trials,  —  Lionel 
H.  Kennedy  and  Thomas  Parker.  It  contains 
the  evidence  in  full,  and  a  separate  narrative 
of  the  whole  affair,  more  candid  and  lucid  than 
any  other  which  I  have  found  in  the  newspapers 
or  pamphlets  of  the  day.  It  exhibits  that  rarest 
of  all  qualities  in  a  slave-community,  a  willing 
ness  to  look  facts  in  the  face.  This  narrative 
has. been  faithfully  followed,  with  the  aid  of 
such  cross-lights  as  could  be  secured  from  many 
other  quarters,  in  preparing  the  present  history. 

The  editor  of  the  first  official  report  racked 


DENMARK   VESEY  269 

his  brains  to  discover  the  special  causes  of  the 
revolt,  and  never  trusted  himself  to  allude  to 
the  general  one.  The  negroes  rebelled  because 
they  were  deluded  by  Congressional  eloquence ; 
or  because  they  were  excited  by  a  church  squab 
ble  ;  or  because  they  had  been  spoilt  by  mis 
taken  indulgences,  such  as  being  allowed  to 
learn  to  read,  —  "  a  misguided  benevolence," 
as  he  pronounces  it.  So  the  Baptist  Conven 
tion  seems  to  have  thought  it  was  because 
they  were  not  Baptists ;  and  an  Episcopal  pam 
phleteer,  because  they  were  not  Episcopalians. 
It  never  seems  to  occur  to  any  of  these  specta 
tors,  that  these  people  rebelled  simply  because 
they  were  slaves,  and  wished  to  be  free. 

No  doubt,  there  were  enough  special  torches 
with  which  a  man  so  skilful  as  Denmark  Vesey 
could  kindle  up  these  dusky  powder-magazines ; 
but,  after  all,  the  permanent  peril  lay  in  the 
powder.  So  long  as  that  existed,  every  thing 
was  incendiary.  Any  torn  scrap  in  the  street 
might  contain  a  Missouri-Compromise  speech, 
or  a  report  of  the  last  battle  in  St.  Domingo, 
or  one  of  those  able  letters  of  Boyer's  which 


270  TRAVELLERS   AND   OUTLAWS 

were  winning  the  praise  of  all,  or  one  of  John 
Randolph's  stirring  speeches  in  England  against 
the  slave-trade.  The  very  newspapers  which 
reported  the  happy  extinction  of  the  insurrec 
tion  by  the  hanging  of  the  last  conspirator, 
William  Garner,  reported  also,  with  enthusi 
astic  indignation,  the  massacre  of  the  Greeks 
at  Constantinople  and  at  Scio  ;  and  then  the 
Northern  editors,  breaking  from  their  usual 
reticence,  pointed  out  the  inconsistency  of 
Southern  journals  in  printing,  side  by  side, 
denunciations  of  Mohammedan  slave-sales,  £nd 
advertisements  of  those  of  Christians. 

Of  course  ,the  insurrection  threw  the  whole 
slavery  question  open  to  the  public.  "  We  are 
sorry  to  see,"  said  the  National  Intelligencer 
of  Aug.  31,  "that  a  discussion  of  the  hateful 
Missouri  question  is  likely  to  be  revived,  in 
consequence  of  the  allusions  to  its  supposed 
effect  in  producing  the  late  servile  insurrection 
in  South  Carolina."  A  member  of  the  Board 
of  Public  Works  of  South  Carolina  published 
in  the  Baltimore  American  Farmer  an  essay 
urging  the  encouragement  of  white  laborers. 


DENMARK  VESEY  271 

and  hinting  at  the  ultimate  abolition  of  slavery 
"  if  it  should  ever  be  thought  desirable."  More 
boldly  still,  a  pamphlet  appeared  in  Charleston, 
under  the  signature  of  "  Achates,"  arguing  with 
remarkable  sagacity  and  force  against  the  whole 
system  of  slave-labor  in  towns;  and  proposing 
that  all  slaves  in  Charleston  should  be  sold  or 
transferred  to  the  plantations,  and  their  places 
supplied  by  white  labor.  It  is  interesting  to 
find  many  of  the  facts  and  arguments  of  Help 
er's  "  Impending  Crisis "  anticipated  in  this 
courageous  tract,  written  under  the  pressure 
of  a  crisis  which  had  just  been  so  narrowly 
evaded.  The  author  is  described  in  the  preface 
as  "a  soldier  and  patriot  of  the  Revolution, 
whose  name,  did  we  feel  ourselves  at  liberty  to 
use  it,  would  stamp  a  peculiar  weight  and  value 
on  his  opinions."  It  was  commonly  attributed 
to  Gen.  Thomas  Pinckney. 

Another  pamphlet  of  the  period,  also  pub 
lished  in  Charleston,  recommended  as  a  practical 
cure  for  insurrection  the  copious  administration 
of  Episcopal-Church  services,  and  the  prohibi 
tion  of  negroes  from  attending  Fourth-of-July 


272  TRAVELLERS   AND   OUTLAWS 

celebrations.  On  this  last  point  it  is  more  con 
sistent  than  most  pro-slavery  arguments.  "  The 
celebration  of  the  Fourth  of  July  belongs  exclu 
sively  to  the  white  population  of  the  United 
States.  The  American  Revolution  was  a  family 
quarrel  among  equals.  In  this  the  negroes  had 
no  concern ;  their  condition  remained,  and 
must  remain,  unchanged.  They  have  no  more 
to  do  with  the  celebration  of  that  day  than 
with  the  landing  of  the  Pilgrims  on  the  rock 
at  Plymouth.  It  therefore  seems  to  me  im 
proper  to  allow  these  people  to  be  present  on 
these  occasions.  In  our  speeches  and  orations, 
much,  and  sometimes  more  than  is  politically 
necessary,  is  said  about  personal  liberty,  which 
negro  auditors  know  not  how  to  apply  except 
by  running  the  parallel  with  their  own  condi 
tion.  They  therefore  imbibe  false  notions  of 
their  own  personal  rights,  and  give  reality  in 
their  minds  to  what  has  no  real  existence.  The 
peculiar  state  of  our  community  must  be  stead 
ily  kept  in  view.  This,  I  am  gratified  to  learn, 
will  in  some  measure  be  promoted  by  the  insti 
tution  of  the  South  Carolina  Association." 


DENMARK   VESEY  273 

On  the  other  hand,  more  stringent  laws 
became  obviously  necessary  to  keep  down  the 
advancing  intelligence  of  the  Charleston  slaves. 
Dangerous  knowledge  must  be  excluded  from 
without  and  from  within.  For  the  first  purpose 
the  South  Carolina  Legislature  passed,  in  De 
cember,  1822,  the  Act  for  the  imprisonment  of 
Northern  colored  seamen,  which  afterwards 
produced  so  much  excitement.  For  the  second 
object,  the  Grand  Jury,  about  the  same  time, 
presented  as  a  grievance  "  the  number  of 
schools  which  are  kept  within  the  city  by  per 
sons  of  color,"  and  proposed  their  prohibition. 
This  was  the  encouragement  given  to  the  intel 
lectual  progress  of  the  slaves ;  while,  as  a 
reward  for  betraying  them,  Pensil,  the  free 
colored  man  who  advised  with  Devany,  received 
a  present  of  one  thousand  dollars ;  and  Devany 
himself  had  what  was  rightly  judged  to  be  the 
higher  gift  of  freedom,  and  was  established  in 
business,  with  liberal  means,  as  a  drayman.  He 
lived  long  in  Charleston,  thriving  greatly  in  his 
vocation,  and,  according  to  the  newspapers, 
enjoyed  the  privilege  of  being  the  only  man 


274  TRAVELLERS  AND   OUTLAWS 

of  property  in  the  State  whom  a  special  statute 
exempted  from  taxation. 

More  than  half  a  century  has  passed  since 
the  incidents  of  this  true  story  closed.  It  has 
not  vanished  from  the  memories  of  South  Caro 
linians,  though  the  printed  pages  which  once 
told  it  have  gradually  disappeared  from  sight. 
The  intense  avidity  which  at  first  grasped  at 
every  incident  of  the  great  insurrectionary 
plot  was  succeeded  by  a  prolonged  distaste  for 
the  memory  of  the  tale ;  and  the  official  reports 
which  told  what  slaves  had  once  planned  and 
dared  have  now  come  to  be  among  the  rarest  of 
American  historical  documents.  In  1841,  a 
friend  of  the  writer,  then  visiting  South  Caro 
lina,  heard  from  her  hostess,  for  the  first  time, 
the  events  which  are  recounted  here.  On 
asking  to  see  the  reports  of  the  trials,  she  was 
cautiously  told  that  the  only  copy  in  the  house, 
after  being  carefully  kept  for  years  under  lock 
and  key,  had  been  burnt  at  last,  lest  it  should 
reach  the  dangerous  eyes  of  the  slaves.  The 
same  thing  had  happened,  it  was  added,  in  many 
other  families.  This  partially  accounts  for  the 


DENMARK  VESEY  275 

great  difficulty  now  to  be  found  in  obtaining  a 
single  copy  of  either  publication  ;  and  this  is 
why,  to  the  readers  of  American  history,  Den 
mark  Vesey  and  Peter  Poyas  have  commonly 
been  but  the  shadows  of  names. 


NAT   TURNER'S   INSURRECTION 


the  year  1831,  up  to  the  23d  of 
August,  the  Virginia  newspapers  seem 
to  have  been  absorbed  in  the  momentous  prob 
lems  which  then  occupied  the  minds  of  intelli 
gent  American  citizens  :  What  Gen.  Jackson 
should  do  with  the  scolds,  and  what  with  the 
disreputables?  should  South  Carolina  be  al 
lowed  to  nullify  ?  and  would  the  wives  of  cabi 
net  ministers  call  on  Mrs.  Eaton?  It  is  an 
unfailing  opiate  to  turn  over  the  drowsy  files 
of  the  Richmond  Enquirer,  until  the  moment 
when  those  dry  and  dusty  pages  are  suddenly 
kindled  into  flame  by  the  torch  of  Nat  Turner. 
Then  the  terror  flared  on  increasing,  until  the 
remotest  Southern  States  were  found  shudder 
ing  at  nightly  rumors  of  insurrection  ;  until  far- 
off  European  colonies  —  Antigua,  Martinique, 
Caraccas,  Tortola  —  recognized  by  some  secret 

276 


NAT  TURNER'S  INSURRECTION  277 

sympathy  the  same  epidemic  alarms ;  until  the 
very  boldest  words  of  freedom  were  reported 
as  uttered  in  the  Virginia  House  of  Delegates 
with  unclosed  doors ;  until  an  obscure  young 
man  named  Garrison  was  indicted  at  common 
law  in  North  Carolina,  and  had  a  price  set 
upon  his  head  by  the  Legislature  of  Georgia. 
Near  the  south-eastern  border  of  Virginia,  in 
Southampton  County,  there  is  a  neighborhood 
known  as  "The  Cross  Keys."  It  lies  fifteen 
miles  from  Jerusalem,  the  county -town,  or 
"  court-house,"  seventy  miles  from  Norfolk,  and 
about  as  far  from  Richmond.  It  is  some  ten  or 
fifteen  miles  from  Murfreesborough  in  North 
Carolina,  and  about  twenty-five  from  the  Great 
Dismal  Swamp.  Up  to  Sunday,  the  21st  of 
August,  1831,  there  was  nothing  to  distinguish 
it  from  any  other  rural,  lethargic,  slipshod  Vir 
ginia  neighborhood,  with  the  due  allotment  of 
mansion-houses  and  log  huts,  tobacco-fields  and 
44  old-fields,"  horses,  dogs,  negroes,  "  poor  white 
folks,"  so  called,  and  other  white  folks,  poor 
without  being  called  so.  One  of  these  last  was 
Joseph  Travis,  who  had  recently  married  the 


278  TRAVELLERS  AND  OUTLAWS 

widow  of  one  Putnam  Moore,  and  had  unfortu 
nately  wedded  to  himself  her  negroes  also. 

In  the  woods  on  the  plantation  of  Joseph 
Travis,  upon  the  Sunday  just  named,  six  slaves 
met  at  noon  for  what  is  called  in  the  Northern 
States  a  picnic,  and  in  the  Southern  a  bar 
becue.  The  bill  of  fare  was  to  be  simple :  one 
brought  a  pig,  and  another  some  brandy,  giving 
to  the  meeting  an  aspect  so  cheaply  convivial 
that  no  one  would  have  imagined  it  to  be  the 
final  consummation  of  a  conspiracy  which  had 
been  for  six  months  in  preparation.  In  this 
plot  four  of  the  men  had  been  already  ini 
tiated,  —  Henry,  Hark  or  Hercules,  Nelson,  and 
Sam.  Two  others  were  novices,  Will  and  Jack 
by  name.  The  party  had  remained  together 
from  twelve  to  three  o'clock,  when  a  seventh 
man  joined  them,  —  a  short,  stout,  powerfully 
built  person,  of  dark  mulatto  complexion,  and 
strongly  marked  African  features,  but  with  a 
face  full  of  expression  and  resolution.  This 
was  Nat  Turner. 

He  was  at  this  time  nearly  thirty-one  years 
old,  having  been  born  on  the  2d  of  October, 


NAT  TURNER'S   INSURRECTION  279 

1800.  He  had  belonged  originally  to  Benjamin 
Turner,  —  from  whom  he  took  his  last  name, 
slaves  having  usually  no  patronymic ;  —  had 
then  been  transferred  to  Putnam  Moore,  and 
then  to  his  present  owner.  He  had,  by  his 
own  account,  felt  himself  singled  out  from 
childhood  for  some  great  work;  and  he  had 
some  peculiar  marks  on  his  person,  which, 
joined  to  his  mental  precocity,  were  enough 
to  occasion,  among  his  youthful  companions,  a 
superstitious  faith  in  his  gifts  and  destiny.  He 
had  some  mechanical  ingenuity  also ;  experi 
mentalized  very  early  in  making  paper,  gun 
powder,  pottery,  and  in  other  arts,  which,  in 
later  life,  he  was  found  thoroughly  to  under 
stand.  His  moral  faculties  appeared  strong,  so 
that  white  witnesses  admitted  that  he  had  never 
been  known  to  swear  an  oath,  to  drink  a  drop 
of  spirits,  or  to  commit  a  theft.  And,  in  gen 
eral,  so  marked  were  his  early  peculiarities 
that  people  said  "he  had  too  much  sense  to  be 
raised  ;  and,  if  he  was,  he  would  never  be  of 
any  use  as  a  slave."  This  impression  of  per 
sonal  destiny  grew  with  his  growth :  he  fasted, 


280  TRAVELLERS   AND   OUTLAWS 

prayed,  preached,  read  the  Bible,  heard  voices 
when  he  walked  behind  his  plough,  and  com 
municated  his  revelations  to  the  awe-struck 
slaves.  They  told  him,  in  return,  that,  "  if 
they  had  his  sense,  they  would  not  serve  any 
master  in  the  world." 

The  biographies  of  slaves  can  hardly  be  indi 
vidualized  ;  they  belong  to  the  class.  We  know 
bare  facts ;  it  is  only  the  general  experience 
of  human  beings  in  like  condition  which  can 
clothe  them  with  life.  The  outlines  are  certain, 
the  details  are  inferential.  Thus,  for  instance, 
we  know  that  Nat  Turner's  young  wife  was  a 
slave ;  we  know  that  she  belonged  to  a  different 
master  from  himself;  we  know  little  more  than 
this,  but  this  is  much.  For  this  is  equivalent 
to  saying,  that,  by  day  or  by  night,  her  hus 
band  had  no  more  power  to  protect  her  than  the 
man  who  lies  bound  upon  a  plundered  vessel's 
deck  has  power  to  protect  his  wife  on  board 
the  pirate  schooner  disappearing  in  the  horizon. 
She  may  be  well  treated,  she  may  be  outraged  ; 
it  is  in  the  powerlessness  that  the  agony  lies. 
There  is,  indeed,  one  thing  more  which  we  do 


NAT   TURNER'S   INSURRECTION  281 

know  of  this  young  woman :  the  Virginia  news 
papers  state  that  she  was  tortured  under  the 
lash,  after  her  husband's  execution,  to  make 
her  produce  his  papers:  this  is  all. 

What  his  private  experiences  and  special 
privileges  or  wrongs  may  have  been,  it  is 
therefore  now  impossible  to  say.  Travis  was 
declared  to  be  "  more  humane  and  fatherly  to 
his  slaves  than  any  man  in  the  county;"  but 
it  is  astonishing  how  often  this  phenomenon 
occurs  in  the  contemporary  annals  of  slave 
insurrections.  The  chairman  of  the  county 
court  also  stated,  in  pronouncing  sentence,  that 
Nat  Turner  had  spoken  of  his  master  as  "  only 
too  indulgent ;  "  but  this,  for  some  reason,  does 
not  appear  in  his  printed  Confession,  which  only 
says,  "  He  was  a  kind  master,  and  placed  the 
greatest  confidence  in  me."  It  is  very  possible 
that  it  may  have  been  so,  but  the  printed 
accounts  of  Nat  Turner's  person  look  suspi 
cious  :  he  is  described  in  Gov.  Floyd's  procla 
mation  as  having  a  scar  on  one  of  his  temples, 
also  one  on  the  back  of  his  neck,  and  a  large 
knot  on  one  of  the  bones  of  his  right  arm, 


282  TRAVELLERS  AND  OUTLAWS 

produced  by  a  blow ;  and  although  these  were 
explained  away  in  Virginia  newspapers  as  hav 
ing  been  produced  by  fights  with  his  compan 
ions,  yet  such  affrays  are  entirely  foreign  to 
the  admitted  habits  of  the  man.  It  must 
therefore  remain  an  open  question,  whether  the 
scars  and  the  knot  were  produced  by  black 
hands  or  by  white. 

Whatever  Nat  Turner's  experiences  of  slavery 
might  have  been,  it  is  certain  that  his  plans 
were  not  suddenly  adopted,  but  that  he  had 
brooded  over  them  for  years.  To  this  day 
there  are  traditions  among  the  Virginia  slaves 
of  the  keen  devices  of  "Prophet  Nat."  If  he 
was  caught  with  lime  and  lampblack  in  hand, 
conning  over  a  half-finished  county-map  on  the 
barn-door,  he  was  always  "  planning  what  to  do 
if  he  were  blind ; "  or,  "  studying  how  to  get 
to  Mr.  Francis's  house."  When  he  had  called 
a  meeting  of  slaves,  and  some  poor  whites  came 
eavesdropping,  the  poor  whites  at  once  became 
the  subjects  for  discussion :  he  incidentally 
mentioned  that  the  masters  had  been  heard 
threatening  to  drive  them  away ;  one  slave  had 


NAT   TURNER'S    INSURRECTION  283 

been  ordered  to  shoot  Mr.  Jones's  pigs,  another 
to  tear  down  Mr.  Johnson's  fences.  The  poor 
whites,  Johnson  and  Jones,  ran  home  to  see  to 
their  homesteads,  and  were  better  friends  than 
ever  to  Prophet  Nat. 

lie  never  was  a  Baptist  preacher,  though 
such  vocation  has  often  been  attributed  to  him. 
The  impression  arose  from  his  having  immersed 
himself,  during  one  of  his  periods  of  special 
enthusiasm,  together  with  a  poor  white  man 
named  Brantley.  "  About  this  time,"  he  says 
in  his  Confession,  "  I  told  these  things  to  a 
white  man,  on  whom  it  had  a  wonderful  effect; 
and  he  ceased  from  his  wickedness,  and  was 
attacked  immediately  with  a  cutaneous  erup 
tion,  and  the  blood  oozed  from  the  pores  of  his 
skin,  and  after  praying  and  fasting  nine  days 
he  was  healed.  And  the  Spirit  appeared  to 
me  again,  and  said,  as  the  Saviour  had  been 
baptized,  so  should  we  be  also ;  and  when  the 
white  people  would  not  let  us  be  baptized 
by  the  church,  we  went  down  into  the  water 
together,  in  the  sight  of  many  who  reviled  us, 
and  were  baptized  by  the  Spirit.  After  this 
I  rejoiced  greatly,  and  gave  thanks  to  God." 


284  TRAVELLERS  AND   OUTLAWS 

The  religious  hallucinations  narrated  in  his 
Confession  seem  to  have  been  as  genuine  as 
the  average  of  such  things,  and  are  very  well 
expressed.  The  account  reads  quite  like  Jacob 
Behmen.  He  saw  white  spirits  and  black  spirits 
contending  in  the  skies ;  the  sun  was  darkened, 
the  thunder  rolled.  "  And  the  Holy  Ghost  was 
with  me,  and  said,  4  Behold  me  as  I  stand  in 
the  heavens  ! '  And  I  looked,  and  saw  the  forms 
of  men  in  different  attitudes.  And  there  were. 
lights  in  the  sky,  to  which  the  children  of  dark 
ness  gave  other  names  than  what  they  really 
were ;  for  they  were  the  lights  of  the  Saviour's 
hands,  stretched  forth  from  east  to  west,  even 
as  they  were  extended  on  the  cross  on  Calvary, 
for  the  redemption  of  sinners."  He  saw  drops 
of  blood  on  the  corn  :  this  was  Christ's  blood, 
shed  for  man.  He  saw  on  the  leaves  in  the 
woods  letters  and  numbers  and  figures  of  men, 
—  the  same  symbols  which  he  had  seen  in  the 
skies.  On  May  12,  1828,  the  Holy  Spirit 
appeared  to  him,  and  proclaimed  that  the  yoke 
of  Jesus  must  fall  on  him,  and  he  must  fight 
against  the  serpent  when  the  sign  appeared. 


NAT    TURNER'S   INSURRECTION  285 

Then  came  an  eclipse  of  the  sun  in  February, 
1831 :  this  was  the  sign  ;  then  he  must  arise 
and  prepare  himself,  and  slay  his  enemies  with 
their  own  weapons ;  then  also  the  seal  was 
removed  from  his  lips,  and  then  he  confided  his 
plans  to  four  associates. 

When  he  came,  therefore,  to  the  barbecue  on 
the  appointed  Sunday,  and  found  riot  these 
four  only,  but  two  others,  his  first  question  to 
the  intruders  was,  how  they  came  thither.  To 
this  Will  answered  manfully,  that  his  life  was 
worth  no  more  than  the  others,  and  "  his  liberty 
was  as  dear  to  him."  This  admitted  him  to 
confidence ;  and  as  Jack  was  known  to  be 
entirely  under  Hark's  influence,  the  strangers 
were  no  bar  to  their  discussion.  Eleven  hours 
they  remained  there,  in  anxious  consultation : 
one  can  imagine  those  dusky  faces,  beneath 
the  funereal  woods,  and  amid  the  flickering  of 
pine-knot  torches,  preparing  that  stern  revenge 
whose  shuddering  echoes  should  ring  through 
the  land  so  long.  Two  things  were  at  last 
decided :  to  begin  their  work  that  night ;  and 
to  begin  it  with  a  massacre  so  swift  and  irre- 


286  TRAVELLERS   AND   OUTLAWS 

sistible  as  to  create  in  a  few  days  more  terror 
than  many  battles,  and  so  spare  the  need  of 
future  bloodshed.  "  It  was  agreed  that  we 
should  commence  at  home  on  that  night,  and, 
until  we  had  armed  and  equipped  ourselves 
and  gained  sufficient  force,  neither  age  nor  sex 
was  to  be  spared :  which  was  invariably  ad 
hered  to." 

John  Brown  invaded  Virginia  with  nineteen 
men,  and  with  the  avowed  resolution  to  take  no 
life  but  in  self-defence.  Nat  Turner  attacked 
Virginia  from  within,  with  six  men,  and  with 
the  determination  to  spare  no  life  until  his 
power  was  established.  John  Brown  intended 
to  pass  rapidly  through  Virginia,  and  then 
retreat  to  the  mountains.  Nat  Turner  in 
tended  to  "  conquer  Southampton  County  as 
the  white  men  did  in  the  Revolution,  and  then 
retreat,  if  necessary,  to  the  Dismal  Swamp." 
Each  plan  was  deliberately  matured ;  each  was 
in  its  way  practicable ;  but  each  was  defeated 
by  a  single  false  step,  as  will  soon  appear. 

We  must  pass  over  the  details  of  horror, 
as  they  occurred  during  the  next  twenty-four 


NAT  TURNER'S   INSURRECTION  287 

hours.  Swift  and  stealthy  as  Indians,  the  black 
men  passed  from  house  to  house,  —  not  pausing, 
not  hesitating,  as  their  terrible  work  went  on. 
In  one  thing  they  were  humaner  than  Indians, 
or  than  white  men  fighting  against  Indians : 
there  was  no  gratuitous  outrage  beyond  the 
death-blow  itself,  no  insult,  no  mutilation ;  but 
in  every  house  they  entered,  that  blow  fell  on 
man,  woman,  and  child,  —  nothing  that  had  a 
white  skin  was  spared.  From  every  house 
they  took  arms  and  ammunition,  and  from  a 
few  money.  On  every  plantation  they  found 
recruits :  those  dusky  slaves,  so  obsequious  to 
their  master  the  day  before,  so  prompt  to  sing 
and  dance  before  his  Northern  visitors,  were 
all  swift  to  transform  themselves  into  fiends 
of  retribution  now ;  show  them  sword  or 
musket,  and  they  grasped  it,  though  it  were 
an  heirloom  from  Washington  himself.  The 
troop  increased  from  house  to  house,  —  first  to 
fifteen,  then  to  forty,  then  to  sixty.  Some  were 
armed  with  muskets,  some  with  axes,  some  with 
scythes  some  came  on  their  masters'  horses. 
As  the  numbers  increased,  they  could  be 


288  TRAVELLERS   AND   OUTLAWS 

divided,  and  the  awful  work  was  carried  on 
more  rapidly  still.  The  plan  then  was  for  an 
advanced  guard  of  horsemen  to  approach  each 
house  at  a  gallop,  and  surround  it  till  the  others 
came  up.  Meanwhile,  what  agonies  of  terror 
must  have  taken  place  within,  shared  alike  by 
innocent  and  by  guilty !  what  memories  of 
wrongs  inflicted  on  those  dusky  creatures,  by 
some,  —  what  innocent  participation,  by  others, 
in  the  penance !  The  outbreak  lasted  for  but 
forty-eight  hours ;  but,  during  that  period,  fifty- 
five  whites  Avere  slain,  without  the  loss  of  a 
single  slave. 

One  fear  was  needless,  which  to  many  a  hus 
band  and  father  must  have  intensified  the  last 
struggle.  These  negroes  had  been  systemati 
cally  brutalized  from  childhood  ;  they  had  been 
allowed  no  legalized  or  permanent  marriage ; 
they  had  beheld  around  them  an  habitual 
licentiousness,  such  as  can  scarcely  exist  except 
under  slavery ;  some  of  them  had  seen  their 
wives  and  sisters  habitually  polluted  by  the 
husbands  and  the  brothers  of  these  fair  white 
women  who  were  now  absolutely  in  their  power. 


NAT  TURNER'S  INSURRECTION  289 

Yet  I  have  looked  through  the  Virginia  news 
papers  of  that  time  in  vain  for  one  charge  of 
an  indecent  outrage  on  a  woman  against  these 
triumphant  and  terrible  slaves.  Wherever  they 
went,  there  went  death,  and  that  was  all.  It 
is  reported  by  some  of  the  contemporary  news 
papers,  that  a  portion  of  this  abstinence  was 
the  result  of  deliberate  consultation  among 
the  insurrectionists ;  that  some  of  them  were 
resolved  on  taking  the  white  women  for  wives, 
but  were  overruled  by  Nat  Turner.  If  so,  he 
is  the  only  American  slave-leader  of  whom  we 
know  certainly  that  he  rose  above  the  ordinary 
level  of  slave  vengeance ;  and  Mrs.  Stowe's 
picture  of  D red's  purposes  is  then  precisely 
typical  of  his :  "  Whom  the  Lord  saith  unto 
us,  '  Smite,'  them  will  we  smite.  We  will  not 
torment  them  with  the  scourge  and  fire,  nor 
defile  their  women  as  they  have  done  with  ours. 
But  we  will  slay  them  utterly,  and  consume 
them  from  off  the  face  of  the  earth." 

When  the  number  of  adherents  had  increased 
to  fifty  or  sixty,  Nat  Turner  judged  it  time  to 
strike  at  the  county-seat,  Jerusalem.  Thither 


290  TRAVELLERS   AND   OUTLAWS 

a  few  white  fugitives  had  already  fled,  and 
couriers  might  thence  be  despatched  for  aid 
to  Richmond  and  Petersburg,  unless  promptly 
intercepted.  Besides,  he  could  there  find  arms, 
ammunition,  and  money;  though  they  had  al 
ready  obtained,  it  is  dubiously  reported,  from 
eight  hundred  to  one  thousand  dollars.  On 
the  way  it  was  necessary  to  pass  the  plantation 
of  Mr.  Parker,  three  miles  from  Jerusalem. 
Some  of  the  men  wished  to  stop  here  and  enlist 
some  of  their  friends.  Nat  Turner  objected,  as 
the  delay  might  prove  dangerous ;  he  yielded 
at  last,  and  it  proved  fatal. 

He  remained  at  the  gate  with  six  or  eight 
men  ;  thirty  or  forty  went  to  the  house,  half  a 
mile  distant.  They  remained  too  long,  and  he 
went  alone  to  hasten  them.  During  his  absence 
a  party  of  eighteen  white  men  came  up  sud 
denly,  dispersing  the  small  guard  left  at  the 
gate;  and  when  the  main  body  of  slaves 
emerged  from  the  house,  they  encountered,  for 
the  first  time,  their  armed  masters.  The  blacks 
halted  ;  the  whites  advanced  cautiously  within  a 
hundred  yards,  and  fired  a  volley ;  on  its  being 


NAT  TURNER'S  INSURRECTION  291 

returned,  they  broke  into  disorder,  and  hur 
riedly  retreated,  leaving  some  wounded  on  the 
ground.  The  retreating  whites  were  pursued, 
and  were  saved  only  by  falling  in  with  another 
band  of  fresh  men  from  Jerusalem,  with  whose 
aid  they  turned  upon  the  slaves,  who  in  their 
turn  fell  into  confusion.  Turner,  Hark,  and 
about  twenty  men  on  horseback  retreated  in 
some  order ;  the  rest  were  scattered.  The 
leader  still  planned  to  reach  Jerusalem  by  a 
private  way,  thus  evading  pursuit ;  but  at  last 
decided  to  stop  for  the  night,  in  the  hope  of 
enlisting  additional  recruits. 

During  the  night  the  number  increased  again 
to  forty,  and  they  encamped  on  Major  Ridley's 
plantation.  An  alarm  took  place  during  the 
darkness,  —  whether  real  or  imaginary,  does  not 
appear, — and  the  men  became  scattered  again. 
Proceeding  to  make  fresh  enlistments  with  the 
daylight,  they  were  resisted  at  Dr.  Blunt's 
house,  where  his  slaves,  under  his  orders,  fired 
upon  them ;  and  this,  with  a  later  attack  from  a 
party  of  white  men  near  Capt.  Harris's,  so  broke 
up  the  whole  force  that  they  never  re-united. 


292  TRAVELLERS   AND   OUTLAWS 

The  few  who  remained  together  agreed  to  sepa 
rate  for  a  few  hours  to  see  if  any  thing  could  be 
done  to  revive  the  insurrection,  and  meet  again 
that  evening  at  their  original  rendezvous.  But 
they  never  reached  it. 

Gloomily  came  Nat  Turner  at  nightfall  into 
those  gloomy  woods  where  forty-eight  hours 
before  he  had  revealed  the  details  of  his  terrible 
plot  to  his  companions.  At  the  outset  all  his 
plans  had  succeeded  ;  every  thing  was  as  lie 
predicted :  the  slaves  had  come  readily  at  his 
call ;  the  masters  had  proved  perfectly  defence 
less.  Had  he  not  been  persuaded  to  pause  at 
Parker's  plantation,  he  would  have  been  master 
before  now  of  the  arms  and  ammunition  at 
Jerusalem ;  and  with  these  to  aid,  and  the 
Dismal  Swamp  for  a  refuge,  he  might  have  sus 
tained  himself  indefinitely  against  his  pursuers. 

Now  the  blood  Avas  shed,  the  risk  was 
incurred,  his  friends  were  killed  or  captured, 
and  all  for  what  ?  Lasting  memories  of  terror, 
to  be  sure,  for  his  oppressors ;  but,  on  the  other 
hand,  hopeless  failure  for  the  insurrection,  and 
certain  death  for  him.  What  a  watch  he  must 


NAT   TURNER'S   INSURRECTION  293 

have  kept  that  night !  To  that  excited  imagina 
tion,  which  had  always  seen  spirits  in  the  sky 
and  blood-drops  on  the  corn  and  hieroglyphic 
marks  011  the  dry  leaves,  how  full  the  lonely 
forest  must  have  been  of  signs  and  solemn 
warnings !  Alone  with  the  fox's  bark,  the 
rabbit's  rustle,  and  the  screech-owl's  scream,  the 
self-appointed  prophet  brooded  over  his  despair. 
Once  creeping  to  the  edge  of  the  wood,  he  saw 
men  stealthily  approach  on  horseback.  He 
fancied  them  some  of  his  companions ;  but 
before  he  dared  to  whisper  their  ominous  names, 
"  Hark  "  or  "  Dred,"  —  for  the  latter  was  the 
name,  since  famous,  of  one  of  his  more  recent 
recruits,  —  he  saw  them  to  be  white  men,  and 
shrank  back  stealthily  beneath  his  covert. 

There  he  waited  two  days  and  two  nights, — 
long  enough  to  satisfy  himself  that  no  one 
would  rejoin  him,  and  that  the  insurrection  had 
hopelessly  failed.  The  determined,  desperate 
spirits  who  had  shared  his  plans  were  scattered 
forever,  and  longer  delay  would  be  destruction 
for  him  also.  He  found  a  spot  which  he  judged 
safe,  dug  a  hole  under  a  pile  of  fence-rails  in  a 


294       TRAVELLERS  AND  OUTLAWS 

field,  and  lay  there  for  six  weeks,  only  leaving 
it  for  a  few  moments  at  midnight  to  obtain 
water  from  a  neighboring  spring.  Food  he  had 
previously  provided,  without  discovery,  from  a 
house  near  by. 

Meanwhile  an  unbounded  variety  of  rumors 
went  flying  .through  the  State.  The  express 
which  first  reached  the  governor  announced 
that  the  militia  were  retreating  before  the 
slaves.  An  express  to  Petersburg  further  fixed 
the  number  of  militia  at  three  hundred,  and  of 
blacks  at  eight  hundred,  and  invented  a  conven 
ient  shower  of  rain  to  explain  the  dampened 
ardor  of  the  whites.  Later  reports  described 
the  slaves  as  making  three  desperate  attempts 
to  cross  the  bridge  over  the  Nottoway  between 
Cross  Keys  and  Jerusalem,  and  stated  that  the 
leader  had  been  shot  in  the  attempt.  Other 
accounts  put  the  number  of  negroes  at  three 
hundred,  all  well  mounted  and  armed,  with  two 
or  three  white  men  as  leaders.  Their  intention 
was  supposed  to  be  to  reach  the  Dismal  Swamp, 
and  they  must  be  hemmed  in  from  that  side. 

Indeed,  the  most  formidable  weapon  in  the 


NAT  TURNER'S   INSURRECTION  295 

hands  of  slave  insurgents  is  always  this  blind 
panic  they  create,  and  the  wild  exaggerations 
which  follow.  The  worst  being  possible,  every 
one  takes  the  worst  for  granted.  Undoubtedly 
a  dozen  armed  men  could  have  stifled  this 
insurrection,  even  after  it  had  commenced 
operations  ;  but  it  is  the  fatal  weakness  of  a 
rural  slaveholding  community,  that  it  can  never 
furnish  men  promptly  for  such  a  purpose. 
"  My  first  intention  was,"  says  one  of  the  most 
intelligent  newspaper  narrators  of  the  affair, 
"  to  have  attacked  them  with  thirty  or  forty 
men;  but  those  who  had  families  here  were 
strongly  opposed  to  it." 

As  usual,  each  man  was  pinioned  to  his  own 
hearth-stone.  As  usual,  aid  had  to  be  sum 
moned  from  a  distance ;  and,  as  usual,  the 
United-States  troops  were  the  chief  reliance. 
Col.  House,  commanding  at  Fort  Monroe,  sent 
at  once  three  companies  of  artillery  under 
Lieut.-Col.  Worth,  and  embarked  them  on  board 
the  steamer  "  Hampton "  for  Suffolk.  These 
were  joined  by  detachments  from  the  United- 
States  ships  u  Warren  "  and  "  Natchez,"  the 


296  TRAVELLERS  AND   OUTLAWS 

whole  amounting  to  nearly  eight  hundred  men. 
Two  volunteer  companies  went  from  Richmond, 
four  from  Petersburg,  one  from  Norfolk,  one 
from  Portsmouth,  and  several  from  North 
Carolina.  The  militia  of  Norfolk,  Nansemond, 
and  Princess  Anne  Counties,  and  the  United- 
States  troops  at  Old  Point  Comfort,  were 
ordered  to  scour  the  Dismal  Swamp,  where  it 
was  believed  that  two  or  three  thousand  fugi 
tives  were  preparing  to  join  the  insurgents. 
It  was  even  proposed  to  send  two  companies 
from  New  York  and  one  from  New  London 
to  the  same  point. 

When  these  various  forces  reached  South 
ampton  County,  they  found  all  labor  paralyzed 
and  whole  plantations  abandoned.  A  letter 
from  Jerusalem,  dated  Aug.  24,  says,  "  The 
oldest  inhabitant  of  our  county  has  never 
experienced  such  a  distressing  time  as  we  have 
had  since  Sunday  night  last.  .  .  .  Every  house, 
room,  and  corner  in  this  place  is  full  of  women 
and  children,  driven  from  home,  who  had  to 
take  the  woods  until  they  could  get  to  this 
place."  "  For  many  miles  around  their  track," 


NAT  TURNER'S  INSURRECTION  297 

says  another  "  the  county  is  deserted  by  women 
and  children."  Still  another  writes,  "  Jerusalem 
is  full  of  women,  most  of  them  from  the  other 
side  of  the  river,  —  about  two  hundred  at 
Vix's."  Then  follow  descriptions  of  the  suffer 
ings  of  these  persons,  many  of  whom  had  lain 
night  after  night  in  the' woods.  But  the  imme 
diate  danger  was  at  an  end,  the  short-lived 
insurrection  was  finished,  and  now  the  work  of 
vengeance  was  to  begin.  In  the  frank  phrase 
of  a  North-Carolina  correspondent,  "  The 
massacre  of  the  whites  was  over,  and  the  white 
people  had  commenced  the  destruction  of  the 
negroes,  which  was  continued  after  our  men  got 
there,  from  time  to  time,  as  they  could  fall  in 
with  them,  all  day  yesterday."  A  postscript 
adds,  that  "  passengers  by  the  Fayetteville 
stage  say,  that,  by  the  latest  accounts,  one 
hundred  and  twenty  negroes  had  been  killed," 
—  this  being  little  more  than  one  day's 
work. 

These  murders  were  defended  as  Nat  Turner 
defended  his  :  a  fearful  blow  must  be  struck. 
In  shuddering  at  the  horrors  of  the  insurrection, 


298  TRAVELLERS  AND  OUTLAWS 

we  have  forgotten  the  far  greater  horrors  of  its 
suppression. 

The  newspapers  of  the  day  contain  many 
indignant  protests  against  the  cruelties  which 
took  place.  "  It  is  with  pain,"  tsays  a  corre 
spondent  of  the  National  Intelligencer,  Sept. 
7,  1831,  "  that  we  speak  of  another  feature  of 
the  Southampton  Rebellion;  for  we  have  been 
most  unwilling  to  have  our  sympathies  for  the 
sufferers  diminished  or  affected  by  their  mis 
conduct.  We  allude  to  the  slaughter  of  many 
blacks  without  trial  and  under  circumstances 
of  great  barbarity.  .  .  .  We  met  with  an 
individual  of  intelligence  who  told  us  that  he 
himself  had  killed  between  ten  and  fifteen.  .  .  . 
We  [the  Richmond  troop]  witnessed  with  sur 
prise  the  'sanguinary  temper  of  the  population, 
who  evinced  a  strong  disposition  to  inflict 
immediate  death  on  every  prisoner." 

There  is  a  remarkable  official  document  from 
Gen.  Eppes,  the  officer  in  command,  to  be  found 
in  the  Richmond  Enquirer  for  Sept.  6,  1831. 
It  is  an  indignant  denunciation  of  precisely 
these  outrages ;  and  though  he  refuses  to  give 


NAT  TURNER'S   INSURRECTION  299 

details,  he  supplies  their  place  by  epithets : 
"  revolting,"  -  -  "  inhuman  and  not  to  be  justi 
fied,"  —  "  acts  of  barbarity  and  cruelty,"  — 
"  acts  of  atrocity,"  -  — "  this  course  of  proceeding 
dignifies  the  rebel  and  the  assassin  with  the 
sanctity  of  martyrdom."  And  he  ends  by 
threatening  martial  law  upon  all  future  trans 
gressors.  Such  general  orders  are  not  issued 
except  in  rather  extreme  cases.  And  in  the 
parallel  columns  of  the  newspaper  the  innocent 
editor  prints  equally  indignant  descriptions  of 
Russian  atrocities  in  Lithuania,  where  the  Poles 
were  engaged  in  active  insurrection,  amid 
profuse  sympathy  from  Virginia. 

The  truth  is,  it  was  a  Reign  of  Terror. 
Volunteer  patrols  rode  in  all  directions,  visiting 
plantations.  "  It  was  with  the  greatest  diffi 
culty,"  said  Gen.  Brodnax  before  the  House  of 
Delegates,  "  and  at  the  hazard  of  personal 
popularity  and  esteem,  that  the  coolest  and 
most  judicious  among  us  could  exert  an  influ 
ence  sufficient  to  restrain  an  indiscriminate 
slaughter  of  the  blacks  who  were  suspected." 
A  letter  from  the  Rev.  G.  W.  Powell  declares, 


300       TRAVELLERS  AND  OUTLAWS 

"  There  are  thousands  of  -troops  searching  in 
every  direction,  and  many  negroes  are  killed 
every  day:  the  exact  number  will  never  be 
ascertained."  Petition  after  petition  was  subse 
quently  presented  to  the  Legislature,  asking 
compensation  for  slaves  thus  assassinated 
without  trial. 

Men  were  tortured  to  death,  burned,  maimed, 
and  subjected  to  nameless  atrocities.  The 
overseers  were  called  on  to  point  out  any  slaves 
whom  they  distrusted,  and  if  any  tried  to 
escape  they  were  shot  down.  Nay,  worse  than 
this.  "A  party  of  horsemen  started  from 
Richmond  with  the  intention  of  killing  every 
colored  person  they  saw  in  Southampton 
County.  They  stopped  opposite  the  cabin  of  a 
free  colored  man,  who  was  hoeing  in  his  little 
field.  They  called  out,  c  Is  this  Southampton 
County?'  He  replied,  'Yes,  sir,  you  have  just 
crossed  the  line,  by  yonder  tree.'  They  shot  him 
dead,  and  rode  on."  This  is  from  the  narrative 
of  the  editor  of  the  Richmond  Whig,  who  was 
then  on  duty  in  the  militia,  and  protested  man 
fully  against  these  outrages.  "Some  of  these 


NAT   TURNER'S   INSURRECTION  301 

scenes,"  he  adds,  "  are  hardly  inferior  in  barbar 
ity  to  the  atrocities  of  the  insurgents." 

These  were  the  masters'  stories.  If  even 
these  conceded  so  much,  it  would  be  interesting 
to  hear  what  the  slaves  had  to  report.  I  am 
indebted  to  my  honored  friend,  Lydia  Maria 
Child,  for  some  vivid  recollections  of  this 
terrible  period,  as  noted  down  from  the  lips  of 
an  old  colored  woman,  once  well  known  in  New 
York,  Charity  Bowery.  "At  the  time  of  the 
old  Prophet  Nat,"  she  said,  "  the  colored  folks 
was  afraid  to  pray  loud ;  for  the  whites  threat 
ened  to  punish  'em  dreadfully,  if  the  least  noise 
was  heard.  The  patrols  was  low  drunken 
whites ;  and  in  Nat's  time,  if  they  heard  any  of 
the  colored  folks  praying,  or  singing  a  hymn, 
they  would  fall  upon  'em  and  abuse  'em,  and 
sometimes  kill  'em,  afore  master  or  missis  could 
get  to  'em.  The  brightest  and  best  was  killed 
in  Nat's  time.  The  whites  always  suspect  such 
ones.  They  killed  a  great  many  at  a  place 
called  Duplon.  They  killed  Antonio,  a  slave 
of  Mr.  J.  Stanley,  whom  they  shot ;  then  they 
pointed  their  guns  at  him,  and  told  him  to 


302  TRAVELLERS   AND   OUTLAWS 

confess  about  the  insurrection.  He  told  'em  he 
didn't  know  any  thing  about  any  insurrection. 
They  shot  several  balls  through  him,  quartered 
him,  and  put  his  head  on  a  pole  at  the  fork  of 
the  road  leading  to  the  court."  (This  is  no 
exaggeration,  if  the  Virginia  newspapers  may 
be  taken  as  evidence.)  "  It  was  there  but  a 
short  time.  He  had  no  trial.  They  never  do. 
In  Nat's  time,  the  patrols  would  tie  up  the  free 
colored  people,  flog  'em,  and  try  to  make  'em 
lie  against  one  another,  and  often  killed  them 
before  anybody  could  interfere.  Mr.  James 
Cole,  high  sheriff,  said,  if  any  of  the  patrols 
came  on  his  plantation,  he  would  lose  his  life 
in  defence  of  his  people.  One  day  he^ heard  a 
patroller  boasting  how  many  niggers  he  had 
killed.  Mr.  Cole  said,  '  If  you  don't  pack  up, 
as  quick  as  God  Almighty  will  let  you,  and  get 
out  of  this  town,  and  never  be  seen  in  it  again, 
I'll  put  you  where  dogs  won't  bark  at  you.' 
He  went  off,  and  wasn't  seen  in  them  parts 
again." 

These    outrages   were    not    limited    to    the 
colored  population ;  but  other  instances  occurred 


NAT   TURNER'S   INSURRECTION  303 

which  strikingly  remind  one  of  more  recent 
times.  An  Englishman,  named  Robinson,  was 
engaged  in  selling  books  at  Petersburg.  An 
alarm  being  given,  one  night,  that  five  hundred 
blacks  were  marching  towards  the  town,  he 
stood  guard,  with  others,  on  the  bridge.  After 
the  panic  had  a  little  subsided,  he  happened  to 
remark,  that  "  the  blacks,  as  men,  were  entitled 
to  their  freedom,  and  ought  to  be  emancipated." 
This  led  to  great  excitement,  and  he  was  warned 
to  leave  town.  He  took  passage  in  the  stage, 
but  the  stage  was  intercepted.  He  then  fled  to 
a  friend's  house ;  the  house  was  broken  open, 
and  he  was  dragged  forth.  The  civil  author 
ities,  being  applied  to,  refused  to  interfere. 
The  mob  stripped  him,  gave  him  a  great  num 
ber  of  lashes,  and  sent  him  on  foot,  naked, 
under  a  hot  sun,  to  Richmond,  whence  he  with 
difficulty  found  a  passage  to  New  York. 

Of  the  capture  or  escape  of  most  of  that 
small  band  who  met  with  Nat  Turner  in  the 
woods  upon  the  Travis  plantation,  little  can  now 
be  known.  All  appear  among  the  list  of  con 
victed,  except  Henry  and  Will.  Gen.  Moore, 


304  TRAVELLERS  AND   OUTLAWS 

who  occasionally  figures  as  second  in  command, 
in  the  newspaper  narratives  of  that  day,  was 
probably  the  Hark  or  Hercules  before  men 
tioned  ;  as  no  other  of  the  confederates  had 
belonged  to  Mrs.  Travis,  or  would  have  been 
likely  to  bear  her  previous  name  of  Moore.  As 
usual,  the  newspapers  state  that  most,  if  not 
all  the  slaves,  were  "  the  property  of  kind  and 
indulgent  masters." 

The  subordinate  insurgents  sought  safety  as 
they  could.  A  free  colored  man,  named  Will 
Artist,  shot  himself  in  the  woods,  where  his 
hat  was  found  on  a  stake  and  his  pistol  lying  by 
him  ;  another  was  found  drowned ;  others  were 
traced  to  the  Dismal  Swamp ;  others  returned 
to  their  homes,  and  tried  to  conceal  their  share 
in  the  insurrection,  assuring  their  masters  that 
they  had  been  forced,  against  their  will,  to  join, 
—  the  usual  defence  in  such  cases.  The  num 
ber  shot  down  at  random  must,  by  all  accounts, 
have  amounted  to  many  hundreds,  but  it  is  past 
all  human  registration  now.  The  number  who 
had  a  formal  trial,  such  as  it  was,  is  officially 
stated  at  fifty-five;  of  these,  seventeen  were 


NAT  TURNER'S   INSURRECTION  305 

convicted  and  hanged,  twelve  convicted  and 
transported,  twenty  acquitted,  and  four  free 
colored  men  sent  on  for  further  trial  and  finally 
acquitted.  "Not  one  of  those  known  to  be 
concerned  escaped."  Of  those  executed,  one 
only  was  a  woman,  uLucy,  slave  of  John  T. 
Barrow." 

There  is  one  touching  story,  in  connection 
with  these  terrible  retaliations,  which  rests  on 
good  authority,  that  of  the  Rev.  M.  B.  Cox,  a 
Liberian  missionary,  then  in  Virginia.  In  the 
hunt  which  followed  the  massacre,  a  slaveholder 
went  into  the  woods,  accompanied  by  a  faithful 
slave,  who  had  been  the  means  of  saving  his 
life  during  the  insurrection.  When  they  had 
reached  a  retired  place  in  the  forest,  the  man 
handed  his  gun  to  his  master,  informing  him 
that  he  could  not  live  a  slave  any  longer,  and 
requesting  him  either  to  free  him  or  shoot  him 
on  the  spot.  The  master  took  the  gun,  in  some 
trepidation,  levelled  it  at  the  faithful  negro,  and 
shot  him  through  the  heart.  It  is  probable  that 
this  slaveholder  was  a  Dr.  Blunt,  —  his  being 
the  only  plantation  where  the  slaves  were 


306  TRAVELLERS   AND   OUTLAWS 

reported  as  thus  defending  their  masters.  "If 
this  be  true,"  said  the  Richmond  Enquirer, 
when  it  first  narrated  this  instance  of  loyalty, 
"  great  will  be  the  desert  of  these  noble-minded 
Africans." 

Meanwhile  the  panic  of  the  whites  continued ; 
for,  though  all  others  might  be  disposed  of,  Nat 
Turner  was  still  at  large.  We  have  positive 
evidence  of  the  extent  of  the  alarm,  although 
great  efforts  were  afterwards  made  to  repre 
sent  it  as  a  trifling  affair.  A  distinguished 
citizen  of  Virginia  wrote,  three  months  later,  to 
the  Hon.  W.  B.  Seabrook  of  South  Carolina, 
"From  all  that  has  come  to  my  knowledge 
during  and  since  that  affair,  I  am  convinced 
most  fully  that  every  black  preacher  in  the 
country  east  of  the  Blue  Ridge  was  in  the 
secret."  "There  is  much  reason  to  believe," 
says  the  Governor's  Message  on  Dec.  6,  "that 
the  spirit  of  insurrection  was  not  confined  to 
Southampton.  Many  convictions  have  taken 
place  elsewhere,  and  some  few  in  distant 
counties."  The  withdrawal  of  the  United- 
States  troops,  after  some  ten  days'  service,  was 


NAT  TURNER'S   INSURRECTION  307 

a  signal  for  fresh  excitement ;  and  an  address, 
numerously  signed,  was  presented  to  the  United- 
States  Government,  imploring  their  continued 
stay.  More  than  three  weeks  after  the  first 
alarm,  the  governor  sent  a  supply  of  arms  into 
Prince  William,  Fauquier,  and  Orange  Counties. 
"  From  examinations  which  have  taken  place  in 
other  counties,"  says  one  of  the  best  newspaper 
historians  of  the  affair  (in  the  Richmond 
Enquirer  of  Sept.  6),  "  I  fear  that  the  scheme 
embraced  a  wider  sphere  than  I  at  first  sup 
posed."  Nat  Turner  himself,  intentionally 
or  otherwise,  increased  the  confusion  by  denying 
all  knowledge  of  the  North-Carolina  outbreak, 
and  declaring  that  he  had  communicated  his 
plans  to  his  four  confederates  within  six 
months ;  while,  on  the  other  hand,  a  slave-girl, 
sixteen  or  seventeen  years  old,  belonging  to 
Solomon  Parker,  testified  that  she  had  heard 
the  subject  discussed  for  eighteen  months,  and 
that  at  a  meeting  held  during  the  previous  May 
some  eight  or  ten  had  joined  the  plot. 

It   is   astonishing   to    discover,  by  laborious 
comparison  of  newspaper  files,  how  vast  was 


308  TRAVELLERS   AND  OUTLAWS 

the  immediate  range  of  these  insurrectionary 
alarms.  Every  Southern  State  seems  to  have 
borne  its  harvest  of  terror.  On  the  eastern 
shore  of  Maryland,  great  alarm  was  at  once 
manifested,  especially  in  the  neighborhood  of 
Easton  and  Snowhill ;  and  the  houses  of  colored 
men  were  searched  for  arms  even  in  Baltimore. 
In  Delaware,  there  were  similar  rumors  through 
Sussex  and  Dover  Counties ;  there  were  arrests 
and  executions ;  and  in  Somerset  County  great 
public  meetings  were  held,  to  demand  additional 
safeguards.  On  election-day  in  Seaford,  Del., 
some  young  men,  going  out  to  hunt  rabbits, 
discharged  their  guns  in  sport ;  the  men  being 
absent,  all  the  women  in  the  vicinity  took  to 
flight ;  the  alarm  spread  like  the  "  Ipswich 
Fright " ;  soon  Seaford  was  thronged  with 
armed  men  ;  and  when  the  boys  returned  from 
hunting,  they  found  cannon  drawn  out  to 
receive  them. 

In  North  Carolina,  Raleigh  and  Fayetteville 
were  put  under  military  defence,  and  women 
and  children  concealed  themselves  in  the 
swamps  for  many  days.  The  rebel  organization 


NAT  TURNER'S   INSURRECTION  309 

was  supposed  to  include  two  thousand.  Forty- 
six  slaves  were  imprisoned  in  Union  County, 
twenty-five  in  Sampson  County,  and  twenty- 
three  at  least  in  Duplin  County,  some  of  whom 
were  executed.  The  panic  also  extended  into 
Wayne,  New  Hanover,  and  Lenoir  Counties. 
Four  men  were  shot  without  trial  in  Wilming 
ton,  —  Nimrod,  Abraham,  Prince,  and  "  Dan  the 
Drayman,"  the  latter  a  man  of  seventy,  —  and 
their  heads  placed  on  poles  at  the  four  corners 
of  the  town.  Nearly  two  months  afterwards 
the  trials  were  still  continuing ;  and  at  a  still 
later  day,  the  governor  in  his  proclamation 
recommended  the  formation  of  companies  of 
volunteers  in  every  county. 

In  South  Carolina,  Gen.  Hayne  issued  a 
proclamation  "  to  prove  the  groundlessness  of 
the  existing  alarms,"  -  thus  implying  that 
serious  alarms  existed.  In  Macon,  Ga.,  the 
whole  population  were  roused  from  their  beds 
at  midnight  by  a  report  of  a  large  force  of 
armed  negroes  five  miles  off.  In  an  hour,  every 
woman  and  child  was  deposited  in  the  largest 
building  of  the  town,  and  a  military  force 


310  TRAVELLERS   AND   OUTLAWS 

hastily  collected  in  front.  The  editor  of  the 
Macon  Messenger  excused  the  poor  condition 
of  his  paper,  a  few  days  afterwards,  by  the 
absorption  of  his  workmen  in  patrol  duties,  and 
describes  "  dismay  and  terror  "  as  the  condition 
of  the  people  of  "all  ages  and  sexes."  In 
Jones,  Twiggs,  and  Monroe  Counties,  the  same 
alarms  were  reported ;  and  in  one  place  "  several 
slaves  were  tied  to  a  tree,  while  a  militia  captain 
hacked  at  them  with  his  sword." 

In  Alabama,  at  Columbus  and  Fort  Mitchell, 
a  rumor  was  spread  of  a  joint  conspiracy  of 
Indians  and  negroes.  At  Claiborne  the  panic 
was  still  greater:  the  slaves  were  said  to  be 
thoroughly  organized  through  that  part  of  the 
State,  and  multitudes  were  imprisoned ;  the 
whole  alarm  being  apparently  founded  on  one 
stray  copy  of  the  Boston  Liberator. 

In  Tennessee,  the  Shelbyville  Freeman  an 
nounced  that  an  insurrectionary  plot  had  just 
been  discovered,  barely  in  time  for  its  defeat, 
through  the  treachery  of  a  female  slave.  In 
Louisville,  Ky.,  a  similar  organization  was 
discovered  or  imagined,  and  arrests  were  made 


NAT   TURNER'S   INSURRECTION  311 

in  consequence.  "  The  papers,  from  motives  of 
policy,  do  not  notice  the  disturbance,"  wrote 
one  correspondent  to  the  Portland  Courier. 
"  Pity  us  !  "  he  added. 

But  the  greatest  bubble  burst  in  Louisiana. 
Capt.  Alexander,  an  English  tourist,  arriving 
in  New  Orleans  at  the  beginning  of  September, 
found  the  whole  city  in  tumult.  Handbills  had 
been  issued,  appealing  to  the  slaves  to  rise 
against  their  masters,  saying  that  all  men  were 
born  equal,  declaring  that  Hannibal  was  a  black 
man,  and  that  they  also  might  have  great 
leaders  among  them.  Twelve  hundred  stand  of 
weapons  were  said  to  have  been  found  in  a  black 
man's  house  ;  five  hundred  citizens  were  under 
arms,  and  four  companies  of  regulars  were 
ordered  to  the  city,  whose  barracks  Alexander 
himself  visited. 

If  such  was  the  alarm  in  New  Orleans,  the 
story,  of  course,  lost  nothing  by  transmission  to 
other  slave  States.  A  rumor  reached  Frank 
fort,  Ky.,  that  the  slaves  already  had  possession 
of  the  coast,  both  above  and  below  New 
Orleans.  But  the  most  remarkable  circum- 


312  TRAVELLERS  AND  OUTLAWS 

stance  is,  that  all  this  seems  to  have  been  a 
mere  revival  of  an  old  terror  once  before 
excited  and  exploded.  The  following  paragraph 
had  appeared  in  the  Jacksonville,  Ga.,  Observer, 
during  the  spring  previous  :  — 

"  FEARFUL  DISCOVERY.  —  We  were  favored,  by  yes 
terday's  mail,  with  a  letter  from  New  Orleans,  of  May  1, 
in  which  we  find  that  an  important  discovery  had  been 
made  a  few  days  previous  in  that  city.  The  following 
is  an  extract :  *  Four  days  ago,  as  some  planters  were 
digging  under  ground,  they  found  a  square  room  con 
taining  eleven  thousand  stand  of  arms  and  fifteen 
thousand  cartridges,  each  of  the  cartridges  containing  a 
bullet.'  It  is  said  the  negroes  intended  to  rise  as  soon 
as  the  sickly  season  began,  and  obtain  possession  of  the 
city  by  massacring  the  white  population.  The  same 
letter  states  that  the  mayor  had  prohibited  the  opening 
of  Sunday  schools  for  the  instruction  of  blacks,  under  a 
penalty  of  five  hundred  dollars  for  the  first  offence, 
and,  for  the  second,  death." 

Such  were  the  terrors  that  came  back  from 
nine  other  slave  States,  as  the  echo  of  the 
voice  of  Nat  Turner.  And  when  it  is  also 
known  that  the  subject  was  at  once  taken  up 
by  the  legislatures  of  other  States,  where  there 


NAT  TURNER'S  INSURRECTION  313 

was  no  public  panic,  as  in  Missouri  and 
Tennessee ;  and  when,  finally,  it  is  added  that 
reports  of  insurrection  had  been  arriving  all 
that  year  from  Rio  Janeiro,  Martinique,  St. 
Jago,  Antigua,  Caraccas,  and  Tortola,  —  it  is 
easy  to  see  with  what  prolonged  distress  the 
accumulated  terror  must  have  weighed  down 
upon  Virginia  during  the  two  months  that 
Nat  Turner  lay  hid. 

True,  there  were  a  thousand  men  in  arms  in 
Southampton  County,  to  inspire  security.  But 
the  blow  had  been  struck  by  only  seven  men 
before ;  and  unless  there  were  an  armed  guard 
in  every  house,  who  could  tell  but  any  house 
might  at  any  moment  be  the  scene  of  new 
horrors  ?  They  might  kill  or  imprison  negroes 
by  day,  but  could  they  resist  their  avengers  by 
night?  "The  half  cannot  be  told,"  wrote  a 
lady  from  another  part  of  Virginia,  at  this  time, 
"of  the  distresses  of  the  people.  In  South 
ampton  County,  the  scene  of  the  insurrection, 
the  distress  beggars  description.  A  gentleman 
who  has  been  there  says  that  even  here,  where 
there  has  been  great  alarm,  we  have  no  idea 


314  TRAVELLERS  AND  OUTLAWS 

of  the  situation  of  those  in  that  county.  .  .  . 
I  do  not  hesitate  to  believe  that  many  negroes 
around  us  would  join  in  a  massacre  as  horrible 
as  that  which  has  taken  place,  if  an  opportunity 
should  offer." 

Meanwhile  the  cause  of  all  this  terror  was 
made  the  object  of  desperate  search.  On  Sept. 
17  the  governor  offered  a  reward  of  five  hundred 
dollars  for  his  capture  ;  and  there  were  other 
rewards,  swelling  the  amount  to  eleven  hun 
dred  dollars,  —  but  in  vain.  No  one  could 
track  or  trap  him.  On  Sept.  30  a  minute 
account  of  his  capture  appeared  in  the  news 
papers,  but  it  was  wholly  false.  On  Oct.  7 
there  was  another,  and  on  Oct.  18  another ; 
yet  all  without  foundation.  Worn  out  by  con 
finement  in  his  little  cave,  Nat  Turner  grew 
more  adventurous,  and  began  to  move  about 
stealthily  by  night,  afraid  to  speak  to  any 
human  being,  but  hoping  to  obtain  some  infor 
mation  that  might  aid  his  escape.  Returning 
regularly  to  his  retreat  before  daybreak,  he 
might  possibly  have  continued  this  mode  of 
life  until  pursuit  had  ceased,  had  not  a  dog 


NAT  TURNER'S   INSURRECTION  315 

succeeded  where  men  had  failed.  The  crea 
ture  accidentally  smelt  out  the  provisions  hid 
in  the  cave,  and  finally  led  thither  his  masters, 
two  negroes,  one  of  whom  was  named  Nelson. 
On  discovering  the  formidable  fugitive,  they 
fled  precipitately,  when  he  hastened  to  retreat 
in  an  opposite  direction.  This  was  on  Oct.  15; 
and  from  this  moment  the  neighborhood  was  all 
alive  with  excitement,  and  five  or  six  hundred 
men  undertook  the  pursuit. 

It  shows  a  more  than  Indian  adroitness  in 
Nat  Turner  to  have  escaped  capture  any  longer. 
The  cave,  the  arms,  the  provisions,  were  found  ; 
and,  lying  among  them,  the  notched  stick  of 
this  miserable  Robinson  Crusoe,  marked  with 
five  weary  weeks  and  six  days.  But  the  man 
was  gone.  For  ten  days  more  he  concealed 
himself  among  the  wheat-stacks  on  Mr.  Francis's 
plantation,  and  during  this  time  was  reduced 
almost  to  despair.  Once  he  decided  to  sur 
render  himself,  and  walked  by  night  within 
two  miles  of  Jerusalem  before  his  purpose 
failed  him.  Three  times  he  tried  to  get  out 
of  that  neighborhood,  but  in  vain  :  travelling 


316  TRAVELLERS   AND   OUTLAWS 

by  day  was  of  course  out  of  the  question,  and 
by  night  he  found  it  impossible  to  elude  the 
patrol.  Again  and  again,  therefore,  he  returned 
to  his  hiding-place ;  and,  during  his  whole  two 
months'  liberty,  never  went  five  miles  from  the 
Cross  Keys.  On  the  25th  of  October,  he  was 
at  last  discovered  by  Mr.  Francis  as  he  was 
emerging  from  a  stack.  A  load  of  buckshot 
was  instantly  discharged  at  him,  twelve  of 
which  passed  through  his  hat  as  he  fell  to  the 
ground.  He  escaped  even  then  ;  but  his  pur 
suers  were  rapidly  concentrating  upon  him,  and 
it  is  perfectly  astonishing  that  he  could  have 
eluded  them  for  five  days  more. 

On  Sunday,  Oct.  30,  a  man  named  Benjamin 
Phipps,  going  out  for  the  first  time  on  patrol 
duty,  was  passing  at  noon  a  clearing  in  the 
woods  where  a  number  of  pine-trees  had  long 
since  been  felled.  There  was  a  motion  among 
their  boughs ;  he  stopped  to  watch  it ;  and 
through  a  gap  in  the  branches  he  saw,  emerging 
from  a  hole  in  the  earth  beneath,  the  face  of 
Nat  Turner.  Aiming  his  gun  instantly,  Phipps 
called  on  him  to  surrender.  The  fugitive. 


NAT  TURNER'S  INSURRECTION  817 

exhausted  with  watching  and  privation,  entan 
gled  in  the  branches,  armed  only  with  a  sword, 
had  nothing  to  do  but  to  yield,  —  sagaciously 
reflecting,  also,  as  he  afterwards  explained,  that 
the  woods  were  full  of  armed  men,  and  that  he 
had  better  trust  fortune  for  some  later  chance 
of  escape,  instead  of  desperately  attempting  it 
then.  He  was  correct  in  the  first  impression, 
since  there  were  fifty  armed  scouts  within  a 
circuit  of  two  miles.  His  insurrection  ended 
where  it  began ;  for  this  spot  was  only  a  mile 
and  a  half  from  the  house  of  Joseph  Travis. 

Torn,  emaciated,  ragged,  "ti  mere  scare 
crow,"  still  wearing  the  hat  perforated  with 
buckshot,  with  his  arms  bound  to  his  sides,  he 
was  driven  before  the  levelled  gun  to  the  near 
est  house,  that  of  a  Mr.  Edwards.  He  was  con 
fined  there  that  night ;  but  the  news  had  spread 
so  rapidly  that  within  an  hour  after  his  arrival 
a  hundred  persons  had  collected,  and  the  excite 
ment  became  so  intense  "  that  it  was  with 
difficulty  he  could  be  conveyed  alive  to  Jerusa 
lem."  The  enthusiasm  spread  instantly  through 
Virginia ;  M.  Trezvant,  the  Jerusalem  post- 


318  TRAVELLERS   AND   OUTLAWS 

master,  sent  notices  of  it  far  and  near ;  and 
Gov.  Floyd  himself  wrote  a  letter  to  the 
Richmond  Enquirer  to  give  official  announce 
ment  of  the  momentous  capture. 

When  Nat  Turner  was  asked  by  Mr.  T.  R. 
Gray,  the  counsel  assigned  him,  whether, 
although  defeated,  he  still  believed  in  his  own 
Providential  mission,  he  answered,  as  simply  as 
one  who  came  thirty  years  after  him,  "  Was  not 
Christ  crucified?"  In  the  same  spirit,  when 
arraigned  before  the  court,  "  he  answered,  '  Not 
guilty,'  saying  to  his  counsel  that  he  did  not  feel 
so."  But  apparently  no  argument  was  made  in 
his  favor  by  his  counsel,  nor  were  any  witnesses 
called,  —  he  being  convicted  on  the  testimony 
of  Levi  Waller,  and  upon  his  own  confession, 
which  was  put  in  by  Mr.  Gray,  and  acknowl 
edged  by  the  prisoner  before  the  six  justices 
composing  the  court,  as  being  "  full,  free,  and 
voluntary."  He  was  therefore  placed  in  the 
paradoxical  position  of  conviction  by  his  o\vn 
confession,  under  a  plea  of  "  Not  guilty."  The 
arrest  took  place  on  the  30th  of  October,  1831, 
the  confession  on  the  1st  of  November,  the  trial 


NAT  TURNER'S  INSURRECTION  319 

and  conviction  on  the  5th,  and  the  execution  on 
the  following  Friday,  the  llth  of  November, 
precisely  at  noon.  He  met  his  death  with 
perfect  composure,  declined  addressing  the 
multitude  assembled,  and  told  the  sheriff  in  a 
firm  voice  that  he  was  ready.  Another  account 
says  that  he  "  betrayed  no  emotion,  and  even 
hurried  the  executioner  in  the  performance  of 
his  duty."  "Not  a  limb  nor  a  muscle  was 
observed  to  move.  His  body,  after  his  death, 
was  given  over  to  the  surgeons  for  dissection." 
The  confession  of  the  captive  was  published 
under  authority  of  Mr.  Gray,  in  a  pamphlet,  at 
Baltimore.  Fifty  thousand  copies  of  it  are  said 
to  have  been  printed ;  and  it  was  "  embellished 
with  an  accurate  likeness  of  the  brigand,  taken 
by  Mr.  John  Crawley,  portrait-painter,  and 
lithographed  by  Endicott  &  Swett,  at  Balti 
more."  The  newly  established  Liberator  said 
of  it,  at  the  time,  that  it  would  "only  serve 
to  rouse  up  other  leaders,  and  hasten  other 
insurrections,"  and  advised  grand  juries  to 
indict  Mr.  Gray.  I  have  never  seen  a  copy  of 
the  original  pamphlet ;  it  is  not  easily  to  be 


320  TRAVELLERS  AND   OUTLAWS 

found  in  any  of  our  public  libraries ;  and  I  have 
heard  of  but  one  as  still  existing,  although  the 
Confession  itself  has  been  repeatedly  reprinted. 
Another  small  pamphlet,  containing  the  main 
features  of  the  outbreak,  was  published  at  New 
York  during  the  same  year,  and  this  is  in  my 
possession.  But  the  greater  part  of  the  facts 
which  I  have  given  were  gleaned  from  the 
contemporary  newspapers. 

Who  now  shall  go  back  thirty  years,  and 
read  the  heart  of  this  extraordinary  man,  who, 
by  the  admission  of  his  captors,  "never  was 
known  to  swear  an  oath,  or  drink  a  drop  of 
spirits ; "  who,  on  the  same  authority,  "  for 
natural  intelligence  and  quickness  of  appre 
hension  was  surpassed  by  few  men,"  "with  a 
mind  capable  of  attaining  any  thing ; "  who 
knew  no  book  but  his  Bible,  and  that  by  heart ; 
who  devoted  himself  soul  and  body  to  the 
cause  of  his  race,  without  a  trace  of  personal 
hope  or  fear ;  who  laid  his  plans  so  shrewdly 
that  they  came  at  last  with  less  warning  than 
any  earthquake  on  the  doomed  community 
around;  and  who,  when  that  time  arrived, 


NAT  TURNER'S  INSURRECTION  321 

took  the  life  of  man,  woman,  and  child,  with 
out  a  throb  of  compunction,  a  word  of  exulta 
tion,  or  an  act  of  superfluous  outrage?  Mrs. 
Stowe's  "  Dred "  seems  dim  and  melodramatic 
beside  the  actual  Nat  Turner,  and  De  Quin- 
cey's  "  Avenger  "  is  his  only  parallel  in  imagin 
ative  literature.  Mr.  Gray,  his  counsel,  rises 
into  a  sort  of  bewildered  enthusiasm  with  the 
prisoner  before  him.  "  I  shall  not  attempt  to 
describe  the  effect  of  his  narrative,  as  told  and 
commented  on  by  himself,  in  the  condemned- 
hole  of  the  prison.  The  calm,  deliberate  com 
posure  with  which  he  spoke  of  his  late  deeds 
and  intentions,  the  expression  of  his  fiend-like 
face  when  excited  by  enthusiasm,  still  bearing 
the  stains  of  the  blood  of  helpless  innocence 
about  him,  clothed  with  rags  and  covered  with 
chains,  yet  daring  to  raise  his  manacled  hands 
to  heaven,  with  a  spirit  soaring  above  the 
attributes  of  man,  —  I  looked  on  him,  and  the 
blood  curdled  in  my  veins." 

But,  the  more  remarkable  the  personal  char 
acter  of  Nat  Turner,  the  greater  the  amaze 
ment  felt  that  he  should  not  have  appreciated 


322       TRAVELLERS  AND  OUTLAWS 

the  extreme  felicity  of  his  position  as  a  slave. 
In  all  insurrections,  the  standing  wonder  seems 
to  be  that  the  slaves  most  trusted  and  best 
used  should  be  most  deeply  involved.  So  in 
this  case,  as  usual,  men  resorted  to  the  most 
astonishing  theories  of  the  origin  of  the  affair. 
One  attributed  it  to  Free-Masonry,  and  another 
to  free  whiskey,  —  liberty  appearing  dangerous, 
even  in  these  forms.  The  poor  whites  charged 
it  upon  the  free  colored  people,  and  urged 
their  expulsion ;  forgetting  that  in  North  Caro 
lina  the  plot  was  betrayed  by  one  of  this 
class,  and  that  in  Virginia  there  were  but  two 
engaged,  both  of  whom  had  slave  wives.  The 
slaveholding  clergymen  traced  it  to  want  of 
knowledge  of  the  Bible,  forgetting  that  Nat 
Turner  knew  scarcely  any  thing  else.  On  the 
other  hand,  "a  distinguished  citizen  of  Vir 
ginia  "  combined  in  one  sweeping  denunciation 
"  Northern  incendiaries,  tracts,  Sunday  schools, 
religion,  reading,  and  writing." 

But  whether  the  theories  of  its  origin  were 
wise  or  foolish,  the  insurrection  made  its  mark ; 
and  the  famous  band  of  Virginia  emancipa- 


NAT  TURNER'S   INSURRECTION  323 

tionists,  who  all  that  winter  made  the  House 
of  Delegates  ring  with  unavailing  eloquence,  — 
till  the  rise  of  slave-exportation  to  new  cot 
ton  regions  stopped  their  voices,  —  were  but 
the  unconscious  mouthpieces  of  Nat  Turner. 
In  January,  1832,  in  reply  to  a  member  who 
had  called  the  outbreak  a  "petty  affair,"  the 
eloquent  James  McDowell  thus  described  the 
impression  it  left  behind  :  — 

"Now,  sir,  I  ask  you,  I  ask  gentlemen  in 
conscience  to  say,  was  that  a  4  petty  affair ' 
which  startled  the  feelings  of  your  whole  popu 
lation  ;  which  threw  a  portion  of  it  into  alarm, 
a  portion  of  it  into  panic ;  which  wrung  out 
from  an  affrighted  people  the  thrilling  cry,  day 
after  day,  conveyed  to  your  executive,  '  We  are 
in  peril  of  our  lives ;  send  us  an  army  for 
defence'?  Was  that  a  'petty  affair'  which 
drove  families  from  their  homes,  —  which 
assembled  women  and  children  in  crowds, 
without  shelter,  at  places  of  common  refuge,  in 
every  condition  of  weakness  and  infirmity, 
under  every  suffering  which  want  and  terror 
could  inflict,  yet  willing  to  endure  all,  willing 


324  TRAVELLERS   AND    OUTLAWS 

to  meet  death  from  famine,  death  from  climate, 
death  from  hardships,  preferring  any  thing 
rather  than  the  horrors  of  meeting  it  from  a 
domestic  assassin  ?  Was  that  a  c  petty  affair ' 
which  erected  a  peaceful  and  confiding  por 
tion  of  the  State  into  a  military  camp ;  which 
outlawed  from  pity  the  unfortunate  beings 
whose  brothers  had  offended;  which  barred 
every  door,  penetrated  every  bosom  with  fear  or 
suspicion ;  which  so  banished  every  sense  of 
security  from  every  man's  dwelling,  that,  let 
but  a  hoof  or  horn  break  upon  the  silence  of 
the  night,  and  an  aching  throb  would  be  driven 
to  the  heart,  the  husband  would  look  to  his 
weapon,  and  the  mother  would  shudder  and 
weep  upon  her  cradle  ?  Was  it  the  fear  of  Nat 
Turner,  and  his  deluded,  drunken  handful  of 
followers,  which  produced  such  effects?  Was 
it  this  that  induced  distant  counties,  where  the 
very  name  of  Southampton  was  strange,  to  arm 
and  equip  for  a  struggle  ?  No,  sir :  it  was  the 
suspicion  eternally  attached  to  the  slave  himself, 
—  the  suspicion  that  a  Nat  Turner  might  be  in 
every  family ;  that  the  same  bloody  deed  might 


NAT  TURNER'S   INSURRECTION  325 

be  acted  over  at  any  time  and  in  any  place ; 
that  the  materials  for  it  were  spread  through 
the  land,  and  were  always  ready  for  a  like 
explosion.  Nothing  but  the  force  of  this 
withering  apprehension,  —  nothing  but  the 
paralyzing  and  deadening  weight  with  which 
it  falls  upon  and  prostrates  the  heart  of  every 
man  who  has  helpless  dependants  to  protect,  — 
nothing  but  this  could  have  thrown  a  brave 
people  into  consternation,  or  could  have  made 
any  portion  of  this  powerful  Commonwealth, 
for  a  single  instant,  to  have  quailed  and 
trembled." 

While  these  things  were  going  on,  the 
enthusiasm  for  the  Polish  Revolution  was  rising 
to  its  height.  The  nation  was  ringing  with  a 
peal  of  joy,  on  hearing  that  at  Frankfort  the 
Poles  had  killed  fourteen  thousand  Russians. 
The  Southern  Religious  Telegraph  was  pub 
lishing  an  impassioned  address  to  Kosciuszko ; 
standards  were  being  consecrated  for  Poland  in 
the  larger  cities ;  heroes  like  Skrzynecki, 
Czartoryski,  Rozyski,  Raminski,  were  choking 
the  trump  of  Fame  with  their  complicated 


326  TRAVELLERS  AND  OUTLAWS 

patronymics.  These  are  all  forgotten  now ;  and 
this  poor  negro,  who  did  not  even  possess  a 
name,  beyond  one  abrupt  monosyllable,  —  for 
even  the  name  of  Turner  was  the  master's 
property,  —  still  lives,  a  memory  of  terror,  and 
a  symbol  of  wild  retribution. 


APPENDIX    OF    AUTHORITIES 


I.     OLD  SALEM  SEA-CAPTAINS 

THE  materials  for  this  chapter  were  obtained 
chiefly  from  private  sources,  especially  the  manu 
script  autobiography  of  Hon.  Nathaniel  Silsbee, 
for  which  I  was  indebted  to  his  daughter,  the 
late  Mrs.  Jared  Sparks,  and  the  reminiscences  of 
Capt.  Richard  J.  Cleveland,  which  I  used  in  manu 
script,  but  which  have  lately  been  published  by 
Messrs.  Harper  &  Brothers.  I  am  also  greatly 
indebted  to  the  collections  of  the  Essex  Institute, 
and  the  East-India  Marine  Society  at  Salem,  and 
to  the  various  printed  manuals  and  local  histories 
relating  to  that  city. 

II.    A  REVOLUTIONARY  CONGRESSMAN  ON 
HORSEBACK 

The  manuscript  diaries  of  the  Hon.  William 
Ellery,  from  which  this  paper  is  drawn,  are  now  in 
process  of  publication  by  the  Pennsylvania  Histor 
ical  Society,  in  its  Magazine  of  History  and  Biog 
raphy,  beginning  October,  1887. 

327 


328  TRAVELLERS  AND  OUTLAWS 

III.    A  NEW-ENGLAND  VAGABOND 

Since  the  first  publication  of  this  paper,  I  have 
heard  of  three  or  four  other  copies  of  the  very  rare 
book  from  which  it  was  drawn,  besides  the  copy 
in  the  Worcester  (Mass.)  Free  Public  Library. 
These  copies  are  all  in  private  hands,  and  I  am 
not  aware  that  any  other  public  library  contains  it. 


IV.     THE  MAROONS  OF  JAMAICA 

1:  Dallas,  R.  C.  "  The  History  of  the  Maroons, 
from  their  origin  to  the  establishment  of  their  chief 
tribe  at  Sierra  Leone  :  including  the  expedition  to 
Cuba,  for  the  purpose  of  procuring  Spanish  chas 
seurs  ;  and  the  state  of  the  Island  of  Jamaica  for 
the  last  ten  years,  with  a  succinct  history  of  the 
island  previous  to  that  period."  In  two  volumes. 
London,  1803.  [8vo.] 

2.  Edwards,  Bryan.     ''The   History,   Civil   and 
Commercial,   of   the  British   Colonies   in  the  West 
Indies.     To  which    is  added    a  general  description 
of  the  Bahama  Islands,  by  Daniel  M'Kiunen,  Esq." 
In  four  volumes.     Philadelphia,  180G.      [8vo.j 

3.  Edwards,  Bryan.     "Proceedings  of  the  Gov 
ernor  and  Associates  of  Jamaica  in  regard  to  the 


APPENDIX   OF   AUTHORITIES  329 

Maroon  Negroes,  with  an  account  of  the  Maroons.'* 
London, 1796.     8vo. 

4.  Edwards,  Bryan.     "  Historical  Survey  of  St. 
Domingo,  with  an  account  of  the  Maroon  Negroes, 
a  history  of  the  war  in  the  West  Indies,  1793-94" 
[etc.].     London,  1801.     4to. 

5.  Edinburgh  Revieiv,  ii.  376.     [Review  of  Dallas 
and  Edwards,  by  Henry  Lord  Brougham.] 

Also  Annual  Register,  Hansard's  Parliamentary 
Debates,  etc. 

[There  appeared  in  Once  a  Week  (1865)  a  paper 
entitled  "The  Maroons  of  Jamaica,"  and  reprinted 
in  Every  Saturday  (i.  50,  Jan.  31,  1866),  in  which 
Gov.  Eyre  is  quoted  as  having  said,  in  the  London 
Times,  "  To  the  fidelity  and  loyalty  of  the  Maroons 
it  is  due  that  the  negroes  did  not  commit  greater 
devastation"  in  the  recent  insurrection;  thus  curi 
ously  repeating  the  encomium  given  by  Lord  Bal- 
carres  seventy  years  before.] 

V.    THE  MAROONS  OF  SURINAM 

1.  "  Narrative  of  a  Five  Years'  Expedition 
against  the  revolted  negroes  of  Surinam,  in  Guiana, 
on  the  wild  coast  of  South  America,  from  the  year 
1772  to  1777  .  .  .  by  Capt.  J.  G.  Stedman." 


330  TRAVELLERS   AND   OUTLAWS 

London.  Printed  for  J.  Johnson,  St.  Paul's 
Churchyard,  and  J.  Edwards,  Pall  Mall.  1790. 
[2  vols.  4to.] 

2.  "Transatlantic  Sketches,  comprising  visits  to 
the  most  interesting  scenes  in  North  and  South 
America  and  the  West  Indies.  With  notes  on 
negro  slavery  and  Canadian  emigration.  By  Capt. 
J.  E.  Alexander,  42  Royal  Highlanders."  London  : 
Richard  Bentley,  New  Burlington  St.,  1833.  [2 
vols.  8vo.] 

Also  Annual  Register,  etc. 

[The  best  account  of  the  present  condition  of 
the  Maroons,  or,  as  they  are  now  called,  bush- 
negroes,  of  Surinam,  is  to  be  found  in  a  graphic 
narrative  of  a  visit  to  Dutch  Guiana,  by  W.  G. 
Palgrave,  in  the  Fortnightly  Review,  xxiv.  801  ; 
xxv.  194,  «~>3G.  These  papers  are  reprinted  in 
LittelVs  Living  Age,  cxxviii.  154,  cxxix.  409.  He 
estimates  the  present  numbers  of  these  people  as 
approaching  thirty  thousand.  The  "  Encyclopaedia 
Britannica "  gives  the  names  of  several  publica 
tions  relating  to  their  peculiar  dialect,  popularly 
known  as  Negro-English,  but  including  many  Dutch 
word  s.3 


APPENDIX  OF  AUTHORITIES  331 

VI.  •  GABRIEL'S  DEFEAT 

The  materials  for  the  history  of  Gabriel's  revolt 
are  still  very  fragmentary,  and  must  be  sought  in 
the  contemporan'  newspapers.  No  continuous  file 
of  Southern  newspapers  for  the  year  1800  was  to 
be  found,  when  this  narrative  was  written,  in  any 
Boston  or  New- York  library,  though  the  Harvard- 
College  Library  contained  a  few  numbers  of  the 
Baltimore  Telegraphe  and  the  Norfolk  Epitome  of 
the  Times.  My  chief  reliance  has  therefore  been 
the  Southern  correspondence  of  the  Northern  news 
papers,  with  the  copious  extracts  there  given  from 
Virginian  journals.  I  am  chiefly  indebted  to  the 
Philadelphia  United-States  Gazette,  the  Boston  Inde 
pendent  Chronicle,  the  Salem  Gazette  and  Register, 
the  New- York  Daily  Advertiser,  and  the  Connecti 
cut  Courant.  The  best  continuous  narratives  that 
I  have  found  are  in  the  Courant  of  Sept.  29,  1800, 
and  the  Salem  Gazette  of  Oct.  7,  1800  ;  but  even 
these  are  very  incomplete.  Several  important  docu 
ments  I  have  been  unable  to  discover,  —  the  official 
proclamation  of  the  governor,  the  description  of 
Gabriel's  person,  and  the  original  confession  of  the 
slaves  as  given  to  Mr.  Sheppard.  The  discovery 
of  these  would  no  doubt  have  enlarged,  and  very 
probably  corrected,  my  narrative. 


332  TRAVELLERS   AND   OUTLAWS 


VII.     DENMARK  VESEY 

1.  "  Negro  Plot.    An  Account  of  the  late  intended 
insurrection  among  a  portion  of  the  blacks  of  the 
city  of  Charleston,  8.C.    Published  by  the  Authority 
of  the  Corporation  of  Charleston."    Second  edition. 
Boston  :  printed  and  published  by  Joseph  W.  Ingra- 
ham.     1822.     8vo,  pp.  50. 

[A  third  edition  was  printed  at  Boston  during 
the  same  year,  a  copy  of  which  is  in  the  library 
of  the  Massachusetts  Historical  Society.  The  first 
and  fourth  editions,  which  were  printed  at  Charles 
ton,  S.C.,  I  have  never  seen.] 

2.  "An  Official  Report  of  the  trials  of  sundry 
negroes,  charged  with  an  attempt  to  raise  an  insur 
rection  in  the  State  of  South  Carolina :  preceded  by 
an  introduction  and  narrative ;  and  in  an  appendix, 
a  report   of    the  trials  of    four  white   persons,  on 
indictments  for  attempting  to  excite  the  slaves  to 
insurrection.      Prepared   and   published  at  the    re 
quest  of  the   court.      By  Lionel  H.   Kennedy  and 
Thomas  Parker,  members    of    the  Charleston    bar, 
and    the    presiding     magistrates     of     the    court." 
Charleston :    printed    by   James    R.     Schenck,    23 
Broad  St.      1822.      8vo,  pp.   188x4. 


APPENDIX   OF  AUTHORITIES  333 

3.  "Reflections  occasioned  by  the  late  disturb 
ances    in    Charleston,    by  Achates."      Charleston: 
printed  and  sold  by  A.  E.  Miller,  No.  4  Broad  St. 
1822.     8vo,  pp.  30. 

4.  "A  Refutation    of    the   Calumnies  circulated 
against  the  Southern  and  Western  States,  respect 
ing  the  institution  and  existence  of  slavery  among 
them.     To  which  is  added  a  minute  and  particular 
account  of  the  actual  state  and  condition  of  their 
Negro  Population,  together  with  Historical  Notices 
of  all  the  Insurrections  that  have  taken  place  since 
the  settlement  of  the  country.  —  Facts  are  stubborn 
things. — Shakspeare.      By   a   South   Carolinian." 
[Edwin    C.    Holland.]       Charleston :     printed    by 
A.  E.  Miller,  No.  4  Broad  St.     1822.    8vo,  pp.  86. 

5.  "  Rev.  Dr.   Richard  Furman's   Exposition  of 
the  views  of  the  Baptists  relative  to  the  colored 
population  in  the  United  States,  in  a  communica 
tion  to  the  Governor  of  South  Carolina."     Second 
edition.       Charleston :    printed    by   A.    E.    Miller, 
No.  4  Broad  St.     1833.     8vo,  pp.   16. 

[The  first  edition  appeared  in  1823.  It  relates 
to  a  petition  offered  by  a  Baptist  Convention  for  a 
day  of  thanksgiving  and  humiliation,  in  reference 
to  the  insurrection,  and  to  a  violent  hurricane  which 
had  just  occurred.] 


334  TRAVELLERS   AND  OUTLAWS 

6.  "Practical    Considerations,    founded    on    the 
Scriptures,    relative   to    the    Slave    Population    of 
South    Carolina.      Respectfully    dedicated    to    the 
South    Carolina    Association.       By   a    South  Caro 
linian."      Charleston:    printed  and  sold  by  A.   E. 
Miller,  No.  4  Broad  St.     1823.     8vo,  pp.  38. 

7.  [The  letter  of  Gov.  Bennett,  dated  Aug.  10, 
1822,  was  evidently  printed  originally  as  a  pamphlet 
or  circular,  though  I  have  not  been  able  to  find  it 
in  that  form.     It  may  be  found  reprinted  in  the 
Columbian   Centinel   (Aug.  31,  1822),   Connecticut 
Courant  (Sept.  3),  and  Worcester  Spy  (Sept.  18). 
It  is  also  printed  in  Lundy's  Genius  of  Universal 
Emancipation  for  September,  1822  (ii.  42),  and  re 
viewed  in  subsequent  numbers  (pp.  81,  131,  142).] 

8.  "The  Liberty  Bell,  by  Friends  of   Freedom. 
Boston:    Anti-Slavery    Bazaar.       1841.       12mo." 
[This  contains  an  article  on  p.  158,  entitled  "  Ser 
vile  Insurrections,"  by  Edmund  Jackson,  including 
brief     personal    reminiscences    of    the    Charleston 
insurrection,    during    which    he    resided     in    that 
city.] 

[Of  the  above-named  pamphlets,  all  now  rare, 
Nos.  1  and  2  are  in  my  own  possession.  Nos.  3,  4, 
5,  6,  are  in  the  Wendell  Phillips  collection  of 
pamphlets  in  the  Boston  Public  Library.] 


APPENDIX  OF  AUTHORITIES  335 

VIII.    NAT  TURNER'S  INSURRECTION 

1.  "The  Confessions  of  Nat  Turner,  the  leader 
of  the  late  Insurrection  in  Southampton,  Va.,  as 
fully  and  voluntarily  made  to  Thomas  R.  Gray,  in 
the  prison  where  he  was  confined,  and  acknowl 
edged  by  him  to  be  such  when  read  before  the 
Court  of  Southampton,  with  the  certificate  under 
seal  of  the  court  convened  at  Jerusalem,  Nov.  5, 
1831,  for  this  trial.  Also  an  authentic  account  of 
the  whole  insurrection,  with  lists  of  the  whites  who 
were  murdered,  and  of  the  negroes  brought  before 
the  Court  of  Southampton,  and  there  sentenced, 
etc."  New  York:  printed  and  published  by  C. 
Brown,  211  AVater  Street,  1831. 

[This  pamphlet  was  reprinted  in  the  Anglo- 
African  Magazine  (New  York),  December,  1859. 
Whether  it  is  identical  with  the  work  said  by  the 
newspapers  of  the  period  to  have  been  published  at 
Baltimore,  I  have  been  unable  to  ascertain.  But 
if,  as  was  alleged,  forty  thousand  copies  of  the 
Baltimore  pamphlet  were  issued,  it  seems  impossi 
ble  that  they  should  have  become  so  scarce.  The 
first  reprint  of  the  Confession,  so  far  as  I  know, 
was  a  partial  one  in  Abdy's  "  Journal  in  the  United 
States."  London.  1835.  3  vols.  8vo. 


336  TRAVELLERS   AND   OUTLAWS 

2.  "Authentic  and  Impartial  Narrative  of   the 
Tragical    Scene    which   was    witnessed    in    South- 
hampton   County    (Va.),   on  Monday,   the   22d   of 
August    last,    when    Fifty-five    of    its    inhabitants 
(mostly    women     and    children)     were    inhumanly 
massacred  by  the  blacks  !     Communicated  by  those 
who  were  eye-witnesses  of   the  bloody  scene,  and 
confirmed   by   the    confessions    of    several   of    the 
Blacks,    while    under    Sentence  of   Death."     [By 
Samuel  Warner,  New  York.]     Printed  for  Warner 
&   West.     1831.     12mo,    pp.    36    [or   more,    copy 
incomplete.     With    a    frontispiece].     Among    the 
Wendell    Phillips    tracts    in    the    Boston    Public 
Library. 

3.  "  Slave  Insurrection  in  1831,  in  Southampton 
County,  Va.,  headed  by  Nat  Turner.     Also  a  con 
spiracy  of    slaves  in   Charleston,   S.C.,   in   1822." 
New    York :    compiled    and    published    by    Henry 
Bibb,  9  Spruce  St.     1849.     12mo,  pp.  12. 

[The  contemporary  newspaper  narratives  may  be 
found  largely  quoted  in  the  first  volume  of  the 
Liberator  (1831),  and  in  Lundy's  Genius  of  Uni 
versal  Emancipation  (September,  1831).  The  files 
of  the  Richmond  Enquirer  have  also  much  infor 
mation  on  the  subject.] 


INDEX. 


Accompong,  Capt.,  125. 
Adams,  C.  F.,  jun.,  112. 
Adams,  John,  55,  73,  199. 
Adams,  Samuel,  73,  108,  109. 
A  doe,  a  Maroon,  154. 
Alexander,  Capt.,  182,  311,  330. 
Alexander,  Gen.  William,  81. 
Anglo- African  Magazine,  the,  335. 
Annual      Register,     quoted,     156, 

157. 

Araby,  Capt.,  155. 
Artist,  Will,  304. 

Balearres,  Lord,  116,  132. 

Baron,  a  Maroon,  169. 

Barrow,  J.  T.,  305. 

Bartlett,  J.  R.,  quoted,  113. 

Benbo,  Capt.,  101. 

Bennett,  Gov.,  260,  334. 

Blunt,  Dr.,  291,  305. 

Bonny,  a  Maroon,  169. 

Boston,  Capt.,  155. 

Bowditch,  Nath.,  27,  47. 

Bowery,  Charity,  301. 

Bowler,  Jack,  201. 

Boyer,  President,  233,  269. 

Brodnax,  Gen.,  299. 

Brougham,  Lord,  329. 

Brown,  Capt.  John,  186,  194,  212, 

286. 

Bulfinch,  Charles,  208. 
Burgoyne,  John,  58,  61,  69. 


Cabot,  George,  26,  56. 

Cabot,  Richard,  19. 

Callender,  J.  T.,  196, 198. 

Carlyle,  Thomas,  quoted,  170. 

Carnes,  Jonathan,  26. 

Casas,  Don  Luis  de  las,  140. 

Castle  (Boston  Harbor),  109. 

Channing,  E.  T.,  84. 

Channing,  Walter,  86. 

Channing,  W.  E.,  86. 

Chasseurs,  Spanish- American,  142. 

Child,  D.  L.,  264. 

Child,  Mrs.  L.  M.,  301. 

Cilley,  Col.,  101. 

Circassians  and  Maroons,  116. 

Clarkson,  Thomas,  187. 

Cleveland,  H.  W.  S.,  28. 

Cleveland,  Richard  J.,  13,  25,  28, 
35,  54,  327. 

Cockpits,  the,  in  Jamaica,  121. 

Cole,  James,  302. 

Colonization  Society,  origin  of,  203. 

CONGRESSMAN,  A  REVOLUTION 
ARY,  ON  HORSEBACK,  57. 

Cotton,  Peggy,  97. 

Cox,  Rev.  M.  B.,  305. 

Crane,  Col.,  104. 

Craskell,  Capt.,  130. 

Cromwell,  Oliver,  117, 118. 

Crowninshield  Family,  55. 

Cudjoe,  119,  124. 

Currency,  Continental,  104. 

337 


338 


INDEX 


Dallas,  R.  C.,  119,  328. 
Dana,  Francis,  58, 108. 
Dana,  R.  H.,  58,  86. 
Dana,  R.  H.,  jun.,  43. 
DENMARK  VESEY,  215. 
Derby,  Charles,  25. 
Derby,  E.  II.,  25,  44,  46,  48. 
Devany,  a  slave,  216,  273. 
Devereux,  James,  46. 
Dogs  iii  War,  138. 
Dred,  a  slave,  293. 

East  India  Marine  Society,  45. 
Edwards,  Bryan,  148,  328. 
Ellery,  William,  57,  327. 
Endicott,  C.  M.,  26. 
"Essex,"  Frigate,  49. 
Essex  Junto,  the,  55. 
Eyre,  Gov.,  329. 

Farragut,  D.  C.,  49. 
Federalism  in  Salem,  Mass.,  54. 
Floyd,  John,  281,  306,  318. 
Fougeaud,  Col.,  161,  171,  174. 
Furman,  Rev.  Richard,  333. 

Gabriel,  a  slave,  186. 
GABRIEL'S  DEFEAT,  185. 
Gallimore,  Col.,  132. 
Gardiner,  Sir  C.,  90. 
Garner,  William,  233,  270. 
Garrison,  W.  L.,  277. 
Gell,  Monday,  228. 
Gillis,  J.  D.,  26. 
"  Grand  Turk,"  the,  44. 
Gray,  T.  R.,  318,  319,  335. 
Gray,  William,  49,  55. 
Guthrie,  Col.,  124. 
Guthrie's    "  Geographical     Gram 
mar,"  27. 

Hancock,  John,  68. 
Ilaraden,  Jonathan,  18,  49. 
Hark,  a  slave,  278,  293. 
Harte,  Bret,  quoted,  114. 


Harth,  Mingo,  217. 
Harvard  College,  90,  101. 
Helper,  H.  R.,  271. 
Higginson,  John,  15,  16. 
Higginson,  Nathaniel,  15. 
Higginson,  Stephen,  25,  56. 
Holland,  E.  C.,  333. 
Holmes,  O.  W.,  quoted,  90. 
Hulen,  Edward,  50. 
Hydropathy,  invented  by  Maroons, 
162. 

Ingersoll,  Jonathan,  44. 

Insurrections  in  South  Carolina, 
215;  in  Virginia,  185,  276;  in 
Jamaica,  116;  in  Surinam,  150. 

Insurrectionary  Panics»  308. 

Jackson,  Andrew,  276. 
Jackson,  Edmund,  334. 
JAMAICA,  THE  MAROONS  op,  116. 
James,  Major,  130,  133. 
Jefferson,    Thomas,    56,    187,    196, 

198. 

Joli  Cceur,  169. 
Jones,  John  Paul,  18. 
Judd,  Sally,  107. 
Junto,  Essex,  55. 

Kennedy,  L.  H.,  332. 
King,  Rufus,  226. 

Lafayette,  Marquis  de,  70,  123. 

Lamb,  Charles,  quoted,  91. 

Lee,  Joseph,  26. 

Lily  Mountains,  the,  112. 

Livingston,  Gov.,  64. 

Lucy,  a  slave,  305. 

Lundy,  Benjamin,  212,  334,336. 

MAROONS  or  JAMAICA,  THE,  116. 
MAROONS  OF  SURINAM,  THE,  !;">(). 
Maroons,  etymology  of  the  word, 
118. 


INDEX 


339 


Marvell,  Andrew,  quoted,  160. 
Mateell,  Oapt.,  quoted,  112. 
Mercer,  C.  F.,  205. 
Mifflin,  Gen.,  74. 
Miles,  Josiah,  99. 
Montagu,  Old,  130,  146. 
Monroe,  James,  201. 
Morton,  Thomas,  90. 

NAT    TURNER'S    INSURRECTION, 

276. 

NEW-ENGLAND  VAGABOND,  A,  88. 
New  Lights,  a  sect,  97. 

Occut,  Molly,  99. 

OLD  SALEM  SEA-CAPTAINS,  11. 

Otis,  James,  17. 

Ovid,  quoted,  111. 

Palgrave,  W.  G.,  330. 
Parker,  Thomas,  332. 
Parsons,  Theophilus,  56,  108. 
Paul,  John,  215. 
Paul,  William,  215,  261. 
Peabody,  George,  46. 
Peabody,  Joseph,  22. 
Pelissier,  Marshal,  quoted,  120. 
Penn,  Admiral,  117. 
Perry,  M.  J.,  46. 
Philips,  Old,  99. 
Phillips,  Wendell,  19,  334. 
Pickering,  Timothy,  55. 
Pickman,  Benjamin,  17. 
Pinckney,  Thomas,  199,  271. 
Polish  Revolution,  the,  325. 
Porter,  Judge,  61. 
Powell,  Rev.  G.  W.,  299. 
Poyas,  Peter,  217,  229. 
Preble,  Edward,  49. 
Prices  in  1669,  15. 
Prioleau,  Col.,  215. 
Privateers  in  1812,  52. 
Prosser,  Thomas,  190. 
Purcell,  Jack,  230. 


Quarrell,  Col.,  138, 145. 

Randolph,  John,  213,  270. 
Redwood,  William,  77. 
Reid,  Col.,  103. 
REVOLUTIONARY    CONGRESSMAN, 

A,  57. 
Ridley,  Major,  291. 
Rolla,  a  slave,  255. 
Ropes,  Joseph,  47. 
Rouissillon,  Count  de,  42. 
Russell,  Dr.,  124. 

Sabattus,  99. 

Sadler,  Capt.,  125. 

SALEM  SEA-CAPTAINS,  OLD,  11. 

Salem,  Mass.,  commerce  of,  13. 

Scott,  John,  191,  202. 

Scott,  Sir  Walter,  quoted,  93. 

Seabrook,  W.  B.,  306. 

Shays'  Rebellion,  89. 

Sheafe,  Jacob,  95. 

Sheppard,  Moseley,  188. 

Sheridan,  R.  B.,  148. 

Silsbee,  Nathaniel,  13,  25,  33,  55, 

327. 

Simmons,  Capt.,  22. 
Slavery,  influence  of,  153,  208,  269, 

274. 

Spencer,  Gen.,  58,  61. 
Stedman,  J.  G.,  150,  329. 
Stedman,  Joanna,  178. 
Stowe,  Mrs.  H.  B.,  quoted,  289. 
Sullivan,  John,  77,  101. 
SURINAM,     THE     MAROONS     OFJ 

150. 

Thoreau,  H.  D.,  quoted,  36. 
Travis,  Joseph,  277,  317. 
Trumbull,  Jonathan,  63. 
Tucker,  St.  George,  187. 
Tufts,  Henry,  89. 
Turner,  Benjamin,  279. 
Turner,  Nat,  276. 


340 


INDEX 


Vanderford,  Benjamin,  27. 
Venables,  Admiral,  117. 
Vescy,  Capt.,  221. 
Vesey,  Denmark,  185,  195,  215. 
Virgil,  quoted,  12. 

Walpole,  Gen.,  137,  143. 


Washington,  George,  22,  88,  187. 
Webster,  Daniel,  13. 
Wilberforce,  William,  148. 
Williamson,  Gen.,  116,  121. 
Woodfolk  or  Woolfolk,  Ben,  188. 

191. 
Worth,  W.  J.,  295. 


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A   WINTER  IN   CENTRAL  AMERICA  AND  MEXICO 

By  HELEN  J   SANBORN.     Cloth,  $1.50. 
"  A  bright,  attractive  narrative  by  a  wide-awake  Boston  girl." 

A   SUMMER   IN  THE   AZORES,  with  a  Glimpse  of  Madeira 

By  Miss  C.  ALICE  BAKER.     Little  Classic  style.     Cloth,  gilt  edges,  $1.25. 
"  Miss  Baker  gives  us  a  breezy,  entertaining  description  of  these  picturesque 

islands.     She  is  an  observing  traveller,  and  makes  a  graphic  picture  of  the 

quaint  people  and  customs." —  Chicago  Advance. 

LIFE   AT   PUGET   SOUND 

With  sketches  of  travel  in  Washington  Territory,  British  Columbia,  Oregon, 
and  California.     By  CAROLINE  C.  LEIGHTON.     i6mo,  cloth,  $1.50. 
"  Your  chapters  on  Puget  Sound  have  charmed  me.     Full  of  life,  deeply 

interesting,  and   with  just  that  class  of  facts,  and  suggestions  of  truth,  that 

cannot  fail  to  help  the  Indian  and  the  Chinese."  —  WENDELL  PHILLIPS. 

EUROPEAN   BREEZES 

By  MARGERY  DEANE.      Cloth,  gilt  top,  $1.50.      Being  chapters  of  travel 
through  Germany,  Austria,  Hungary,  and  Switzerland,  covering  places  not 
usually   visited  by  Americans  in  making  "  the  Grand  Tour  of  the  Conti 
nent,"  by  the  accomplished  writer  of  "  Newport  Breezes." 
"  A  very  bright,  fresh  and  amusing  account,  which  tells  us  about  a  host  of 

'.hings  we  never  heard  ol  before,  and  is  worth  two  ordinary  books  of  European 

travel."  —  Woman's  Journal. 

BEATEN   PATHS  ;  or,  A  Woman's  Vacation  in  Europe 

By  ELLA  W.  THOMPSON.     i6mo,  cloth.    $1.50. 
A  lively  and  chatty  book  of  travel,  with  pen-pictures  humorous  and  graphic, 

that  are  decidedly  out  of  the  "  beaten  paths  "  of  description. 

AN   AMERICAN   GIRL   ABROAD 

By   Miss  ADELINE   TRAFTON,   author  of  "  His   Inheritance,"  "  Katherine 
Earle,"  etc.     i6mo.     Illustrated.     $1.50. 
"  A  sparkling  account  of  a  European  trip  by  a  wide-awake,  intelligent,  and 

irrepressible  American  girl.     Pictured  with  a  freshness  and  vivacity  that  is 

delightful."  —  Utica  Observer 

CURTIS   GUILD'S   TRAVELS 
BRITONS  AND  MUSCOVITES;  or,  Traits  of  Two  Empires 

Cloth,  $2.00. 

OVER  THE  OCEAN;  or,  Sights  and  Scenes  in  Foreign  Lands 

By  CURTIS  GUILD,  editor  of  "  The  Boston  Commercial  Bulletin.'    Crown  8vo. 

Cloth,  $2.50. 

"  The  utmost  that  any  European  tourist  can  hope  to  do  is  to  tell  the  old 
story  in  a  somewhat  fresh  way,  and  Mr.  Guild  has  succeeded  in  every  part  of 
his  book  in  doing  this."  —  Philadelphia  Bulletin. 
ABROAD  AGAIN  ;  or,  Fresh  Forays  in  Foreign  Fields 
Uniform   with   "  Over   the   Ocean."      By   the    same    author       Crown  8vo. 

Cloth,  $2.50. 

"  He  has  given  us  a  life-picture.  Europe  is  done  in  a  style  that  must  serve 
as  an  invaluable  guide  to  those  who  go  '  over  the  ocean,'  as  well  as  an  inter 
esting  companion."  —  Halifax  Citizen. 


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GERMANY     SEEN     WITHOUT     SPECTACLES;    or,   Random 
Sketches  of  Various  Subjects,  Penned  from  Different  Stand 
points  in  the  Empire 
By  HENRY  RUGGLES,  late  United  States  Consul  at  the  Island  of  Malta,  and 

at  Barcelona,  Spain.     $1.50. 

"  Mr.  Ruggles  writes  briskly:  he  chats  and  gossips,  slashing  right  and  left 
with  stout  American  prejudices,  and  has  made  withal   a   most  entertaining 
book.''  —  New-York  Tribune. 
TRAVELS   AND   OBSERVATIONS   IN    THE   ORIENT,  with  a 

Hasty  Flight  in  the  Countries  of  Europe 
By  WALTER  HARRIMAN  (ex-Governor  of  New  Hampshire).     $1.50. 

"  The  author,  in  his  graphic  description  of  these  sacred  localities,  refers 
with  great  aptness  to  scenes  and  personages  which  history  has  made  famous 
It  is  a  chatty  narrative  of  travel.'' —  Concord  Monitor. 
FORE   AND   AFT 
A  Story  of  Actual  Sea-Life.     By  ROBERT  B.  DIXON,  M.D.     $1.25. 

Travels  in  Mexico,  with  vivid  descriptions  of  manners  and  customs,  form  a 
large  part  of  this  striking  narrative  of  a  fourteen-months'  voyage. 
VOYAGE   OF   THE   PAPER   CANOE 
A  Geographical  Journey  of  Twenty-five  Hundred  Miles  from  Quebec  to  the 

Gulf  of  Mexico.      By  NATHANIEL  H.  BISHOP.     With  numerous  illustra 
tions  and  maps  specially  prepared  for  this  work.     Crown  8vo.     $1.50. 

"  Mr.   Bishop  did  a  very  bold  thing,  and  has   described  it  with  a  happy 
mixture  of  spirit,  keen  observation,  and  bonhomie."  —  London  Graphic. 
FOUR   MONTHS  IN   A    SNEAK-BOX 
A  Boat  Voyage  of  Twenty-six  Hundred  Miles  down  the  Ohio  and  Mississippi 

Rivers,  and  along  the  Gulf  of  Mexico.     By  NATHANIEL  H.  BISHOP.    With 

numerous  maps  and  illustrations.     $1.50. 

"  His  glowing  pen-pictures  of  '  shanty-boat '  life    on   the   great  rivers  are 
true  to  life.     His  descriptions  of  persons  and  places  are  graphic."  —  Zion's 
Herald. 
A  THOUSAND   MILES'  WALK   ACROSS  SOUTH  AMERICA, 

Over  the  Pampas  and  the  Andes 
By  NATHANIEL  H.  BISHOP.     Crown  8vo.     New  edition.     Illustrated.     $1.50. 

"  Mr.  Bishop  made  this  journey  when  a  boy  of  sixteen,  has  never  forgotten 
it,  and  tells  it  in  such  a  way  that  the  reader  will  always  remember  it,  and 
wish  there  had  been  more." 
CAMPS   IN   THE    CARIBBEES 
Being  the  Adventures  of  a  Naturalist  Bird-hunting  in  the  West-India  Islands. 

By  FRED  A.  OBER.     New  edition.     With  maps  and  illustrations.     $1.50. 

"  E)uring  two  years  he  visited  mountains,  forests,  and  people,  that  few,  if 
any,  tourists  had  ever  reached  before.     He  carried  his  camera  with  him,  and 
photographed  from  nature  the  scenes  by  which  the  book  is  illustrated."  — 
Louisville  Courier-Journal. 
ENGLAND    FROM     A    BACK     WINDOW;     With     Views     of 

Scotland  and  Ireland 
By  J.  M.  BAILEY,  the  "  '  Danbury  News'  Man."     ramo.     $1.00. 

"  The  peculiar  humor  of  this  writer  is  well  known.  The  British  Isles  have 
never  before  been  looked  at  in  just  the  same  way,  —  at  least,  not  by  ajiy  one 
who  has  notified  us  of  the  fact.  Mr.  Bailey's  travels  possess,  accordingly,  a 
value  of  their  own  for  the  reader,  no  matter  how  many  previous  records  of 
journeys  in  the  mother  country  he  may  have  read." —  Rochester  Express. 

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PRE-GLACIAL   MAN    AND  THE   ARYAN   RACE 

A  History  of  the  Creation,  and  of  the  birthplace  and  wanderings  of  man  in 
Central  Asia,  from  B.C.  32,500  to  B.C.  15,000.     With  a  History  of  the  Aryan 
Race,  commencing  B.  C.  15,000;  its  rise  and  progress;  the  decline  and  the 
destruction  of  that  nation.     By  LORENZO  BURGE.     Cloth,  $1.50. 
"  This  is  an  ingenious  and  interesting  treatise  upon  the  subjects  under  con 
sideration,  and  proves  very  clearly  the  ability  and  research  of  its  author.     It 
deals  with  man  and  his  surroundings  long  before  he  became  an  inmate  of  the 
Garden  of  Eden,  and  traces  his  progress  and  changes  of  condition  down  to  the 
time  of  the  Deluge.     The  subject,  while  seemingly  a  dry  one,  is  treated  in  a 
novel   and   interesting  manner,  and   the   book  will   find   many   appreciative 
readers."  —  Washington  Chronicle. 

THE  HIDDEN  WAY  ACROSS  THE  THRESHOLD 
Or,  The  Mystery  which  hath  been  hidden  for  Ages  and  from  Generations. 
An  explanation  of  the  concealed  forces  in  every  man  to  open  the  temples  of 
the  soul  and  to  learn  the  guidance  of  the  unseen  hand.  Illustrated,  and 
made  plain,  with  as  few  occult  terms  as  possible.  By  J.  C.  STREET.  Second 
edition.  Octavo,  cloth.  600  pp.  Illustrated.  $3.50. 

"  It  is  a  deserved  reward  of  Dr.  J.  C.  Street  that  his  book,  '  The  Hidden 
Way  across  the  Threshold,'  has  reached  a  second  edition.  It  contains  more 
material,  original  and  selected,  than  ever  has  been  published  in  this  country 
•n  Eastern  occult  science,  and  has  the  authority  of  a  gentleman,  as  its  author, 
who  has  studied  as  an  initiate  for  many  years  in  the  leading  Eastern  societies 
devoted  to  philosophical  investigation  of  occult  mysteries."  —  Boston  Globe. 
REMINISCENCES  OF  FROEBEL 

By  Baroness  MARZENHOLZ-BULOW,   translated  by  Mrs.  MARY  MANN,  with  a 
biographicajfcsketch  by  Miss  EMILY  SHERIFF.     New  edition.     $1.50. 
"  In  this  book,  the  great  author  and  teacher  of  Kindergarten  methods  in 
education  is  brought  into  close  communion  with  the  reader;  and  his  theories, 
and  his  manner  of  imparting  them  to  others,  are  strikingly  set  forth.     One 
gains  from  this  volume  a  most  complete  idea  of  Froebel,  in  the  details  of  his 
personal  and  educational  career." —  Cincinnati  Journal. 
THE   ART   OF   PROJECTING 

A  Manual  of  Experimentation  in  Physics,  Chemistry,  and  Natural  History, 
with  the  Porte-Lumiere  and  Magic  Lantern,  also  with  Electric  Lights  and 
Lamps,  and  the  Production  and  Phenoij^na  of  Vortex  Rings.  By  Professor 
A.  E.  DOLBEAR,  inventor  of  the  telephone.  New  edition.  Illustrated. 

$2.00. 

"  The  book  has  met  a  real  want;  and  a  sunbeam  can  now  be  made  useful  in 
school  work,  and  in  the  study  of  phenomena  in  many  places  where  no  substi 
tute  is  practicable.     The  amateur  student  of  practical  and  popular  science 
will  find  this  a  useful  volume.  " —  Dubuque  Herald. 
THE   DEVELOPMENT   THEORY 

By  JOSEPH  T.  BERGEN,  Jim.,  and  FANNY  D.  BERGEN.  The  Study  of  Evolu 
tion  simplified  for  general  readers.  Cloth,  $1.25. 

"  This  is  an  elementary  exposition  of  the  celebrated  Darwinian  theory. 
The  idea  was  to  popularize  this  great  principle  of  science,  to  show  how  it  ob 
tains  in  geology,  paleontology,  zoology,  ornithology,  —  in  fact,  throughout  the 
whole  catalogue  of  ologies.  The  subject  is  entirely  stripped  of  all  scientific 
phraseology,  and  the  matter  is  presented  in  the  simplest  English.  Illustrations 
abound  to  illumine  every  principle,  and  the  more  scientific  explanations."  — 
Sar.  Francisco  Post. 


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"  Robert  Collyer's  '  Talks'  are  the  only  ones  we  ever  saw  that  we  can  sit 
down  to  and  read  with  the  same  interest  that  we  do  a  good  novel.  He  has  so 
few  words  compared  to  his  ideas,  and  they  are  so  short  and  pithy,  that  we 
never  tire  of  them.  He  is  never  dull  or  tedious,  and  his  deep  reading  outcrops 
without  any  seeming  effort  on  his  part,  or  rather  in  spite  of  himself;  and  his 
mother-wit  is  so  rich,  and  his  genius  so  marvellous,  that  he  hardly  seems  able 
to  talk  without  interesting  his  hearer,  or  write  without  making  it  readable."  — 
Gardiner  Journal. 

NATURE  AND  LIFE    Cloth  $1.50 

"  '  Nature  and  Life  '  is  the  expressive  title  of  a  volume  of  sermons  by  Rev. 
Robert  Collyer.  The  subjects  of  the  various  discourses  comprised  in  the 
volume,  the  manner  in  which  the  Scriptural  texts  are  turned  over  and  de 
veloped  on  each  and  every  side,  and  the  peculiar  and  interesting  story  of 
Mr.  Collyer's  life,  will  all  unite  to  insure  the  book  a  large  circulation,  and  an 
attentive  perusal.  Mr.  Collyer's  thoughts  are  always  fresh  and  vigorous,  his 
imagery  is  beautifully  appropriate,  and  in  all  his  utterances  and  writings  his 
words  are  stamped  with  the  honest  sincerity  of  his  purposes."  —  Boston 
Journal. 

THE   LIFE   THAT   NOW   IS    With  portrait    Cloth  $1.50 

"  The  characteristics  of  this  work  are  sterling  common  sense,  woven  with 
true  and  enduring  piety.  Evidently  there  is  less  of  the  sentimental  than  the 
real  and  genuine  about  this  gentleman,  although  the  writer  is  literally  en 
dowed  with  the  poetical  feeling,  which  is  used  to  tone  his  well-rounded  periods. 
The  reader  of  this  volume  will  rise  refreshed  and  recreated,  fully  believing 
that  there  is  something  real,  pointed,  and  practical  in  this  life;  and  if  predis 
posed  to  melancholy,  he  or  she  will  be  the  more  ready  to  combat  with  the 
trials  and  difficulties  that  beset  us  here." — Haverhill  Bulletin. 

A  MAN    IN    EARNEST     Lifeof  A.  H.  Conant    Cloth  $1.50 

"  It  is  not  often  that  a  book  is  published  so  earnest  and  lifelike  as  the 
present  volume.  The  life  which  is  sketched  may  not  be  familiar  to  our  read 
ers;  but  a  perusal  of  this  volume  will  show  that  it  possessed  sterling  qualities, 
and  that  it  \vas  worthy  of  a  narrative  and  commemoration.  One  who  knew 
the  man  has  written  the  story  of  his  humble,  yet  important,  career;  and  he  has 
written  it  in  a  way  that  will  interest  every  reader.  Mr.  Conant  gave  his  life 
to  his  country.  The  history  of  his  career  was  a  noble  history,  and  his  death, 
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written.  The  book  is  a  neat  i6mo  of  a  hundred  and  forty  pages,  and  contains 
ten  essays,  which  are  too  full  of  beauty  and  tenderness,  and,  withal,  they 
are  too  perfect  illustrations  of  what  is  finest  and  most  characteristic  in  the 
genius  of  the  author,  to  be  scattered  and  lost.  He  who  has  not  read  '  Grow 
ing  Aged  Together,'  the  first  essay  of  the  volume,  has  not  seen  Mr.  Collyer 
at  his  best.  It  is  well  the  essays  are  gathered  into  a  volume." 


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